The Real Story of Labyrinth
by MeshiroDreamer
Summary: Sam was a dreamer who didn't fully believe that Goblin Kings and fairies were real until he manages to wish his younger sister away to the Goblin King, Jareth. Sam agrees to complete the labyrinth but isn't prepared when he is told that the king himself is part of the maze and even though he may have gone through the labyrinth, his journey isn't over yet.
1. Chapter 1

The real story of the labyrinth is more gay than you first imagined and possibly twice as risqué. The hero of our story was not Sarah but Sam. And the Goblin King was not as wicked as you thought. We begin at a park very similar to the one that we first met Sarah in but Sam was not reciting lines from his favorite book; he was writing a letter to his beloved.

'Dear Gareth,

I miss you dearly and I do wish that we could be together. However it seems that fate has other plans for us. We are doomed to be separated by fate's cruel desires. Come soon my love. I will be waiting.

Sam'

Before you wonder at how Sam was already acquainted, notice the spelling, if it is the case of your perfect match, you know to get the name right. This is Sam hoping beyond hope that someone is out there, his soulmate. Dreams have a way of eating away real time, thus Sam was jolted from his fantasy by the huge clock chiming seven. He was late.

Sam struggled to his feet and turned to his sheep dog who was lying in the grass a few feet away. "Come on, Arthur! We're late!" Sam called and broke into a sprint as soon as the dog had climbed back onto its feet. Sam raced across the grass, trying to beat the sun's descent on his way home.

The boy and his dog ran through the park and across the street as the streetlights began to come on. Their glow illuminated the sidewalk as Sam sprinted across lawns and two more streets in an attempt to get home as soon as possible. Even at his pace, he arrived home fifteen minutes after leaving the park and was greeted at the door by his father. A frown was set on his father's face as Sam jogged up, preparing himself for a lecture.

"Sam," He didn't really want to hear it, but Sam looked at his feet as his father continued, "we just ask you to baby sit Tabatha when Karen and I go out, which isn't often." Sam shrugged as he stepped into the warm glow of his living room,"and only if it won't interfere with your plans."

"We clearly have very different definitions of often," Sam whispered. "Besides, how do you know if I have plans? You don't even ask me anymore!"

"I'd assume that you'd tell me if you had plans. I'd like it if you had plans. A boy your age should have a girlfriend and be going out on dates!" Sam's father said as he crossed his arms. Sam slowly made his way up the staircase, trying to creep away from the lecture. Sam had heard over and over again that he should get a girlfriend despite the fact that he wasn't interested in women. Not that his family actually knew that little fact. They would probably skin him alive if they knew that he wasn't straight.

"Hey Sam, you're home!" Karen said as she stepped out of a room by the top of the staircase, holding Sam's half sister. Sam glared at his father, suddenly feeling like all he had done was fail him.

"I guess I can't do anything right, can I?" Sam asked as he turned and ran up the rest of the steps and into his room.

He smacked the lightswitch as he entered. The yellow light bulb illuminated his blue grey carpet and pale wood shelves that were adorned with spiral notebooks of his story ideas. Most of which involved Gareth. Three of the walls were white, but the one opposite the door that hosted a massive window was light blue. Sam liked to open the white paned glass to watch his white, blue, and yellow curtains dance with the breezes he would allow access to his neat space. Sam sat before his dark wooden writing desk and brushed the loose pencils and paper aside to lay his head on his arms, his patterned green bedspread was just visible between his arms.

Sam stayed like until a knock sounded at his bedroom door which had been slammed shut when he had first entered the room. His stepmother's soft voice came from the other telling him that she and his father needed to leave but Tabatha had been feed and put to bed. "We'll be back by midnight and if you need anything, call me or your father on our phones. Have a good night." Sam waited until he couldn't hear Karen's footsteps anymore before fully lifting his head from his arms. He blinked at his reflection on the mirror next to his desk and stood up to grab one of his notebooks.

The dark haired boy grabbed a black spiral notebook, thumbing through it to see if there were any blank pages left. Finding the book filled, he placed it back on the shelf and noticed that something was missing from his shelves. The small light brown bear that had been sitting on his shelf since he was ten was missing along with one of his notebooks. The bear he wouldn't mind but the missing book sent a shock of fear through his heart.  
Sam bolted from the room and into Tabatha's plain white and pink one. There they were, on the floor. He picked up the notebook and held it to his chest, letting the cool metal spiral and smooth paper cover slow his pounding heart, oblivious to Tabatha's crying. Moments passed, but he finally registered the sound.

Sam glared down at the screaming girl and set the notebook down on the toy chest on the corner of the room. Tabatha wailed as Sam leaned over the white edge of the crib to scoop her up. "Calm down already," Sam muttered he bounced the baby in his arms.

Tabatha continued her wailing and Sam could feel a headache beginning to form. He scrambled for a way to quiet his half sister and then remembered the notebook which had been lying on the ground. Maybe a story would actually calm her and make her sleep so Sam could return to his room and spend the next five hours in peace until his parents returned from their date. That sounded like a fair plan to him. Plus it wasn't like Tabatha was old enough to go running her mouth about what stories Sam told her. He could probably read her his stories about Gareth and she wouldn't be able to say any of her judgements if she had any at all. Sam tried to shush his sister before he started, but to no avail. So, he flipped to the third page in the spiral notebook and started in a voice slightly harsher than the one he usually used when he murmured the tales to himself,

"Alright, Tabatha, here we go:

"Once there was a kingdom, so full of diverse and queer life, color, and mysteries, that it was separated from the one we live in today. It was ruled by Gareth, the king of the Goblins. He was learned in magic and could grant your deepest wishes, change the flow of time, and manipulate the very place in which he lived. He was tall and strong, and he fell for someone. He fell for a boy who was nowhere near as extraordinary, nor as powerful. Gareth fell for him anyway, but Fate had other plans. They were unable to remain together because of the pressures of society, and the family of the boy. This family refused to acknowledge their son's love, and detested the nonconformity of his desires, so they treated him as a slave, forcing him to care for a half-sister who was twice as spoiled and loved," Tabatha remained wailing as Sam approached, "Little did they know Gareth had presented a way to ease his suffering. He need only say the magic words and the goblins would take away the child where she would turn into a goblin herself, and the boy would be free," at this Sam scooped up his wailing half sister and held her up above his head, raising his voice, "Oh, Gareth, I can take it no longer, use your powers and take this child away from me!" Lightning flashed and set shadows running about the room as thunder boomed a few seconds later.

Sam returned Tabatha to his arms as the thunder suddenly drowned out her wails. It had begun to rain despite the fact the sky had been clear when Sam had arrived home. Sam sighed as he tried to calm the screaming child down but it seemed like she wanted the entire world to know that she was displeased since her shrieking didn't die down. Sam glared at the ground and felt hatred well up inside of him. He was sick of Tabatha always crying and stealing attention away from him. He may be a teenager but he still wanted his parents' attention sometimes but they were always busy with Tabatha. Her father wanted him to get a girlfriend, never once considering that a girlfriend might not be what he wanted but Sam couldn't tell him that, not if he wanted to live. His stepmom wouldn't defend him and she probably cared the most about him.

"I wish I did know what to say to make you go away," Sam said as he placed his sister in her crib again, giving up on trying to get her to stop. Sam paced the room for a moment, hoping that somehow he could make his sister disappear if only so he could think. "Just stop it!" He whispered as he turned to leave the room. He paused at the light switch and stared his sister for a moment, clutching the notebook in his arms along with the stuffed bear.

"I miss that the goblins would come take you away," Sam said, his voice full of loathing, "right now." With a flick of his wrist, he turned the lights off and started back to his room. He stopped at his white door when he realized that Tabatha had suddenly stopped crying. He whirled around, suddenly terrified that something had happened to her and that it was all his fault; scared that the words that had suddenly appeared in his mind had actually caused his younger sister harm.

He crept back into the now dark room and peeked in. The room had gone silent but nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. "Tabatha?" He whispered as he quietly stepped into the room. He approached the crib once again and didn't see his sister atop the blankets where he had left her. Thinking that maybe she had somehow managed to crawl under her covers although it didn't possible, Sam reached down to grab the top blanket and whipped it away to reveal that his sister had vanished. Lightning flashed again outside causing the boy to jump and his green eyes to widen in sudden fear.

Scratching came from the window where a beautiful, white owl was apparently trying to break in, as if it was fleeing from the storm. Sam was frozen as he stared at it for a few seconds before another noise behind him alerted him to that fact that he wasn't alone in the house. Sam spun around as cackles filled the air and lunged toward the light switch. He heard the sound of something being knocked over as he tried to flick on the lights but it seemed that the last bolt of lightning had knocked the power out. Sam turned around again as the window suddenly blew open, causing the curtains to violently shake as the wind rushed into the bedroom.

Sam covered his eyes, thinking that the owl was about to burst in and attack him but when he uncovered his eyes, the owl was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a tall, blond man dressed in what appeared to be a black chest plate and tight, very tight, black pants stood in front of him. Sam stared at him, trying to take in the beauty of the creature in front of him. The man stood a few inches shy of six feet since he stood only an inch taller than Sam. At first glance it appeared that he had two different colored eyes but when Sam glanced back into them, he realized that the differences were caused by the different sized pupils.

The man grinned at Sam and the boy suddenly got the feeling that this man was dangerous. His grin was predatory and Sam realized that he was probably nothing more than prey in his eyes. Sam took a step back.

"Gareth?" Sam whispered, suddenly feeling as if he couldn't breathe. The man blinked at him but shook his head. "Who are you then?"

"I am the Goblin King," the blond man replied and began to slowly circle Sam. The tightness in Sam's chest refused to lessen or disappear and it didn't help that he could barely think straight just from the attractiveness of the man.

"What did you do with Tabatha?"

"I took her to my castle, beyond the Goblin City," the Goblin King replied, a soft accent caressing his words. Sam shivered as the king drew in front of him again and pulled a small, crystal ball from the air.

"I want my sister back, I didn't mean for you to take her away!" Sam cried. The Goblin King raised an eyebrow at this as with the ease of an adept he rolled the ball across his arms and hands, mystifying Sam.

"You didn't?" The king replied, lowly.

Sam didn't reply but instead slowly reached for the crystal only to have it pulled out of his reach. "What is that?" Sam said, staring straight into the Goblin King's eyes.

"A gift. It's a crystal, nothing more. But if you turn it this way," the king twisted it to the left, "and look into it, it will show it your dreams. But this is not a gift for an ordinary boy who takes care of a screaming baby." Sam's eyes widened once again and his longing for the crystal grew. "Do you want it?" The king asked with a smirk. Sam slowly nodded, not looking away from the crystal.

"Then forget about the baby."

The words snapped Sam back to the present as fear struck his heart. He couldn't forget about Tabatha if only because his parents would never let him. They would kill him if they found out that she had been taken from the house under Sam's very nose and he had done nothing to stop it from happening. If he thought that it would be bad telling his father that he wasn't interested in women, it would be even worse when his father discovered that Tabatha was gone.

"I can't," Sam whispered as he stared longingly at the crystal.

The smile dropped from the Goblin King's face and the crystal disappeared only to be replaced by a snake. Sam stared at it as it coiled around the king's hand.

"Sam, don't defy me," the king said before tossing the snake at the dark haired boy. Sam gasped as the snake landed into his hastily raised hands. In the blink of an eye, the snake transformed into a scarf which Sam dropped in surprise. The fabric suddenly moved and curled in on itself as it transformed yet again into a small goblin who cackled at Sam before disappearing into the shadows of the bedroom, "What was said cannot be undone, she has taken her place at the goblin city." Sam ordinarily would've been entranced by the lazy purr in the Goblin King's voice, but his fear and guilt kept him from being trapped in its mystery.

"I must get her back, I didn't know. I didn't mean it!" His voice cracked on the last word and the King's lips quirked in the barest trace of a smile,

"Alright Sam," Tabatha's room began to fade, "I'll make you a deal," for an instant all Sam was aware of was the Goblin King's purr, then the world, a different world, sharpened before his eyes, "You have 13 hours to do one of two things," the king whispered into Sam's ear before stepping aside to gesture to the sprawling and massive maze that lay before them, "Complete the maze, and bring your sister home from my palace. Or," He stepped in front of Sam, blocking the boy's view of the alien world with his mismatched eyes and an unplaceable expression, "take her place." The whisper he used made Sam's heart start to race and color creep up his face. "Or you can leave her here and let your little sister become one of us… forever." And the king was gone with a small smirk. When he was gone Sam's insides were a curious concoction of relief and remorse, but he set that aside, determined to reach his sister at the heart of the maze. Assuming his own would stop fluttering like a caged bird, making him mildly light headed.

"Well, come on feet," Sam muttered and with a deep breath, headed down the hill that the Goblin King had placed him on. He approached a pond where a small, ugly man whose face looked like it was carved from a weathered block of gnarled wood was apparently peeing into. Sam averted his eyes and cleared his throat. "Excuse me?" Sam asked.

"Oh, uh, excuse me," the man said as he finished. The small man turned to Sam with a slight look of annoyance which suddenly turned to surprise. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sam, who are you?" Sam replied.

"I'm Hoggle. Are you sure that your name's not Sarah?" Hoggle asked as he picked up a hand pump and waddled away. Sam followed slowly behind with a confused look on his face. What was this strange place filled with incredibly hot men that made it hard for Sam to breathe and then small men who… were spraying fairies?

"923!" Hoggle cackled as the fairy he sprayed with the pump fell to the ground in a small heap.

"No, I'm definitely Sam. Why are spraying these guys?" Sam said as he bent down to examine the creature closer.

"Cause they're nasty boogers," Hoggle replied. "924!" Hoggle cackled with glee as the next beautiful creature fell.

"They're not the only ones," Sam muttered as he stood again and stared up at the wall in front of him. How was he supposed to get into the maze to complete it? Maybe he should give up now and trade places with Tabatha while he still had the chance. Being a goblin couldn't be that bad, right?

"Where do you think you're going?" Hoggle's voice broke Sam's train of thought, he looked down at the man,

"Well I don't think I'm going anywhere, since I can't get into the Maze to rescue my sister from the goblin city!" He let out a frustrated huff as Hoggle rolled his eyes,

"You know what your problem is? You take too many things for granted." Sam huffed again, being chided by a small, weathered man, whose voice had the quality of a singing bullfrog was not something that he wanted, when his sister was trapped in the goblin city, and he was having trouble getting the Goblin King's eyes to stop swimming in his vision.

Sam blinked and shook his head. Surely he hadn't taken too many things for granted. "Alright then, so I guess I shouldn't take for granted that you know a way into the labyrinth?"

"Ah, now we're getting somewhere," Hoggle said with a grin. "It's there." The dwarf pointed at a section of the wall near the pool which suddenly began to move and revealed the entrance into the maze. Sam stood still for a moment, questioning if he really wanted to do this before slowly creeping toward the door.

The door lead into a passageway that branched off to the left and right. The walls were gray stone with green moss covering the walls in large patches. The dirt floor had sticks and large branches dotting the path as if to stop anyone from moving too quickly. On closer inspection, Sam noticed that glitter clung to everything in the passage and there were eyes in the mass that nearly made him scream when they moved and blinked at him.

"Boo!" Hoggle yelled, coming up behind Sam. The boy jumped as he whirled around to face the howling dwarf. Sam glared at him and decided that he was an absolutely horrible man. "Heh. You really going in there?"

"I have to," Sam said, steeling himself. It seemed that he was being set up like the main character in a story and it was time that he accepted that role. Unless he was a side character whose tale would be told to the actual hero but he wasn't going to focus on that at the moment.

"Well good luck and remember to not take anything for granted," Hoggle said before waddling back to continue his assault on the fairies. The doors squealed shut behind him even though Hoggle hadn't touch them as he had gone through again. The sound had the certainty of the click of a hammer being pulled back on a revolver, marking the only way to go now was forwards. Rather, left or right. The walls stretched out in either direction until all Sam could see was a pale blue haze on the horizon. He took a guess, left it was.

His feet slapping the uneven ground was the only sound aside from his breathing Sam heard, and it was accompaniment for the forward journey that was more a tunnel than labyrinth. Sam stopped, leaning against the wall, unaware of the eyes that were following him from their plants on the crooked stone.

"How can this be a labyrinth!" Sam snarled, his anxieties and guilt fraying his nerves, "there are no turns, no choices, no corners! It just goes on and on forever-" he stopped, Hoggle's voice visiting his mind, "perhaps I'm taking it for granted that it's going on forever," Sam stood upright, then paused, the logic in what he just said coming to mind. There wasn't very much. But there had to be some way to find an opening, he had looked like there were many twists and turns from up on the hill; he just needed to find them.

Sam leaned down and grabbed one of the branches that was lying on the ground, grimacing at the sight of all the glitter and knew that it was probably gonna end up on his clothes and in his hair within a few minutes. Sam shifted away from the wall enough so one of his hands was still touching it and extended the arm holding the branch out to the other side. The branch easily reached the other wall of the passageway and Sam nodded in approval. Maybe this would actually get him somewhere so he wasn't just walking until he hit a dead end.

Sam slowly began to walk again, keeping his eyes on the branch and waited to feel open air. After another fifty steps, the wall beneath the branch suddenly disappeared and nearly caused Sam to drop the stick in surprise. "What the?" Sam asked as he approached the area where the wall apparently disappeared.

"Ah, I see you've found the opening!" A small voice said in what sounded like a cockney accent. Sam whirled around and tried to find the source of the voice but didn't see anyone. "Ay! Down 'ere!" Sam looked down at the ground but still didn't see anything.

"Too fa', up a touch!" Sam's dark eyes snapped up to see a small, blue worm perched on a ledge in the wall. Sam leaned down so he could better see the small creature who was wearing a red scarf and had a warm smile on his face.

"Ah, there ya go! Would like to come in and have a nice cup of tea? You can meet the misses!" The worm said warmly. Sam smiled but shook his head.

"I'm afraid I can't but thank you for the offer. I have to complete this maze and get my sister back from the Goblin King. I finally found an opening in the walls," Sam explained. The blue creature nodded its head like this was a totally normal everyday thing. Maybe it was around here. Did children usually get wished away to the Goblin King? San couldn't really imagine such a thing happening very often due to the fact that a lot of people didn't believe in magic. Or if they did then they never spoke about it.

"Well good luck then!" The worm said and Sam thanked him before raising and approaching the unseeable opening again. He slowly walked through, scared that he was going to run into the wall but he passed through unharmed. Sam grinned and turned to the left again deciding that going left must be lucky somehow. He had just taken a few steps when the small voice stopped him.

"Wait, 'ang on!" Sam backtracked and waited for the worm to speak. "Don't go that way!"

"Don't go this way?" Sam questioned, cocking his head to the side and causing his longish, nearly black hair to fall into his green eyes. "Why not?"

"Cause if you keep on going that way, you'll head straight for that castle!" The worm exclaimed. Sam's eyes widened. So this way was a shortcut? He could complete this maze in less than an hour and get his sister back. That seemed impossible.

"That's actually exactly where I need to go! Thank you, that was really helpful!" Sam said before sprinting down the passageway, excitement filling his body and for a moment, his body felt light and hopeful. He would make it to the castle, he knew it, he could succeed.

He wasn't walking long when he saw the castle standing stoically on the horizon like a crown on a weathered king. The surrounding city was brown and gray stone and the entire city just seemed sad. The houses were small much like their occupants. Only a few goblins sat around in the city and paid the boy no mind as he worked his way through the city. Sam picked up his pace, the frustration and guilt that made his trip that much more difficult inverted and fueled his trek forward. The castle in his vision was his point of reference as the daunting labyrinth unraveled before him.

It wasn't long before Sam arrived at huge oak double doors, with massive chains attached to the walls. Oddly enough, they didn't seal the doors but just hung on each side as if for decoration. Sam entered the castle and saw him, the King.

Sam knew what he looked like, he had seen the King before, but it didn't prepare him for the writhing mess of emotions that came with seeing the magical ruler of the goblins lounging on his throne with Tabatha in his arms, surrounded by his subjects in circular stone room. They had been subdued on the journey but they hit him again with full force when he saw the graceful predator in front of him. Whose slender eyebrows were raised in surprise, and an almost impressed smile decorated his lips,

"Well done, Sam. I was not expecting you to get this far in my labyrinth." Sam found his voice,

"What do you mean? I finished it!" The Goblin King's lazy feline grin widened,

"Oh Sam, I'm part of the maze," Sam sucked in a sharp breath, "you have to defeat me to get your sister back."

"What? But-" Sam stuttered, his mind racing. That hadn't been part of the deal, had it? The king had just defeat the labyrinth, that didn't include the king. "How am I supposed to defeat you?"

"Well I could answer that Sam, but that would take the fun out of it. After all, you got here so quickly. I don't want this game to be over just yet. Why don't you go back and look for those answers?" The king replied with a smirk as he stood from the stone throne. The goblins burst into laughter at their king's words. Sam shook from anger about the Goblin King's trick and the fact that he was having a very hard time concentrating on anything but the king's tight pants and strange eyes.

Sam spun on his heel and stormed to the door, the Goblin's laughs seeing him off and the musical chuckle of the Goblin King stroked that disjointed sound with an almost velvet hand. Sam almost had to pinch himself, he was getting way too distracted.

Sam broke into a sprint once he had left the large, wooden doors that granted entrance into the castle. He tore through the Goblin City, the cruel laughter of the goblins and softer chuckles of their king seeming to follow him until he had left the city and was dizzy from lack of breath. Sam sat outside the gates of the city and ran his fingers through his dark hair. What was he going to do? How was he supposed to beat the Goblin King? Was this supposed to a fight of wits or strength? Could Sam bring himself to harm the creature that fascinated him so?

"Take her place," Sam mumbled to himself before shaking his head. "I'll get both of us out of this mess, Tabatha. Someone must know how to defeat him and I'm sure that I can find them somewhere in this maze!" Sam declared, straightening his shoulders. He had gotten through this maze easily so surely finding a way to defeat the king couldn't be that hard.

"Well, come on feet," Sam said as he faced the labyrinth once again.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam entered a garbage dump that seemed both dull yet colorful at the same time. As he peered into the gray and brown stacks of junk, pops of red, green, and blue would stand out as if they were hidden treasure. Piles of junk swayed for no apparent reason in the distance as Sam meandered through the hills. He saw glimmers of faster movement and caught glimpses of haggard faces that made him increase his pace.

The dark haired boy rushed through the yard, suddenly needing to escape and get back to the stone walls covered in moss that held the eyes that followed his every movement. Sam dashed through the piles until he found a path that lead into a dirt path that looked like the one that he originally traveled on. He glanced behind him at the junk and the forest that was beyond that. Turning to face forward again, he plunged back to the maze, hoping that someone would be able to tell him how to defeat the Goblin King.

The dirt path turned into stone walls and Sam entered an area of light yellow stone walls. All the areas suddenly looked the same and he faced several crossroads as he walked slowly through the pathways. Sam searched his pockets and discovered a black market buried deep in his front, right pocket. He pulled it out and examined the thick Sharpie that rested in his palm. It would probably do for marking up the stone walkway beneath his feet.

Sam looked around at the three directions he could go in since he didn't wish to go back the way he had come. He chose right and drew an arrow pointing to the right on the ground before standing and walking in the direction he had indicated.

As Sam began to walk, he thought he could hear soft music drifting toward him from some far off direction. It wafted on the air on delicate spiderwebs of sound.

Jareth, the goblin king, was sitting on his stone throne staring out the window with Tabatha sitting on the circular steps at his feet, her small whimpers tremored on the air just on the edge of hearing. He was allowing his thoughts to drift around of their own accord in spiraling tendrils of recollection. In his mind's eye he saw Sam. He was surprisingly pleased by his satin ebony hair and glowing emerald eyes. The way they were lit by conflicted determination, the way they drifted where they probably shouldn't. Jareth had a fleeting curiosity as to why he didn't mind the visual exploration. The grin slid from the Goblin King's lips as he tried to divert the thought. But once a mind wanders, it has trouble coming back, Jareth was hit by the image of Sam leaving to find a way to defeat him. The slight smirk lifted the corners of his mouth as he re-watched Sam leave. The way his hips swayed slightly as he walked, his surprisingly shapely… Jareth stood up, sharply diverting that train of thought, rapidly concocting a way to distract himself from that tempting creature.

Jareth closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The screams of the goblins and the whimpers of the child invaded his ears as he slipped out of his thoughts for just a moment. He couldn't allow the goblins to get much more rambunctious otherwise they would likely tear the entire castle down… again. Jareth stood up from the surprisingly comfortable throne and thought of the new song that he had been creating for just this moment. He scooped up a goblin that had been sitting on the ground near the throne, "You remind me of the babe," he said. An image of the boy crept back into his mind and Jareth wanted to rip his hair out. How could such a young boy be so… delicious?

"What babe?" The goblin questioned,

"The babe with the power," Jareth replied. The power to make me go insane, the king thought to himself but he didn't allow such ideas to escape his lips.

"What power?" Another goblin questioned.

"The power of voo-doo," Jareth said, with a flick of his hands.

"Who-do?" I'll do Sam, Jareth thought. These are very unbecoming thoughts of a king.

"You do!"

"Do what?" A goblin said.

"Remind me of the babe! I saw my baby, crying hard as babe could cry. What could I do? My baby's love had gone, and left my baby blue! Nobody knew, what kind of magic spell do you use?" Jareth sang, dancing around his throne room.

"Slimes and snails," one goblin sang as he swayed across the room.

"Or puppy dog tails," a high pitched, raspy voice said.

"Thunder or light!" a larger goblin sang in his deep throat.

Jareth whirled around and pointed at Tabatha who cooed back at him. "Then baby said! Dance magic, dance (dance magic, dance) Dance, magic dance (dance, magic dance)… cast that baby spell on me," Jareth and his goblins sang.

"Jump magic jump (jump, magic jump), jump magic jump (jump, magic jump). Put that magic jump on me!" Jareth bent down and picked up Tabatha and danced with her, and threw her up in the air as the verse finished. A goblin caught her on the way down so she wasn't harmed. That was a relief since Sam would likely be angry if some harm befell the young girl.

"Slap that baby. Make him free!" a goblin added.

The dance music continued and the goblins and Jareth danced while Sam did his best to get through the stone maze of the labyrinth. Sam had been marking the direction he had headed in as he walked, listening to the dance music that had followed him but a noise had been bothering him. Each time after he had made his five marks, he would hear a grinding noise as he turned and left the area. It was making him quite suspicious and when he heard it for the fifth time, he whirled around and saw that there was a tiny creature holding the stone square above its head and was apparently turning the stone upside down. Sam stared down at it in amazement as he realized that all the symbols he had made had been for naught. These creatures had been changing them the entire time so there was no possible way that he could find his way back to where he had entered since he couldn't remember all the directions he had headed. Sam pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and felt the need to scream firm but throwing a temper tantrum would get him nowhere. He huffed and spun on his heel, snarling,

"Someone has been changing my marks! What a horrible place,"

"Let me guess, it's not fair?" Sam whirled toward the source of the grated and high voice. He saw two shields first, one with a blue crooked, curved rectangle in the center with a square divided into four sections on the top right and bottom left corners, the other with a red diamond with a circle divided in half on the top left and bottom right corners. Each had a head that came from behind the shield one on the top and bottom. Both people clinging to the shield were dressed in the colors of their shield and as the two pairs of figures finished laughing at Sam, the top two figures ducked back beneath the shield.

Sam shook his head as he walked toward the the figures. He glanced behind, wondering if there was a way out of a conversation with the strange being only to find that the way had turned into a dead end even though it should be have been the passageway to the left that was a stone wall.

"It keeps changing," Sam whispered as he stood only a foot away from the guards. "What am I supposed to do?" Sam wanted to rip his hair out since it seemed that he was never going to find anyone that would tell him the way to beat the Goblin King. Maybe he should just give himself up to king. It probably wouldn't a bad experience, spending the rest of his life with the tight pants wearing king.

"Try one of these doors," the bottom red guard said. Sam studied the wooden doors that stood behind the two guards and they appeared to be identical. "One of them leads to the castle, and other leads to-"

"Ba ba ba bum!" the guards chorused together.

"Certain death!" the red guard finished. Sam stared at the guards in shock for a few moments. He was going to die trying to get find a way to defeat the king of this place? Oh why had he ever wished Tabatha away and gotten both of them into this mess? Besides that mess, how was getting back to the castle going to help him? But maybe if he went the long way back, he could find someone that could tell him the way to defeat the Goblin King! Yes, that was it. So he just needed to get back to the castle!

"Ohh! Ohh!" the guards said.

"Well, which one is which?" Sam asked, hoping that it was the proper question to ask.

"We can't tell you," the bottom red guard said.

"Why not?" Sam questioned, wondering why the guard had even brought the matter up in the first place if he was incapable of answering a question like the one he had asked.

"Uh… I… Uh… Well we don't know, but they do," the bottom guard said as he leaned his body up to gesture to the two guards that created the top half of the shield. They had been cowering behind the shields but straightened once attention had been called to them.

Sam looked up at the guards and shrugged. "Well I'll just ask them then."

"Uh… you can only ask one of us," the top red guard explained.

"It's in the rules!" the top blue guard cooed. "One of us always tells the truth, and one of us always lies! He always lies."

"I do not. I always tell the truth!" the red guard cried.

"Oh what a liar," the blue guard announced.

The bottom red guard laughed as the blue guard pronounced the red guard a liar again. Sam stepped in to stop the argument before it got out of hand. "Answer this yes or no," he said to the red guard. "Would he tell me," Sam pointed at the blue guard at this point, "that this door leads me to the castle?" The guard paused, a hunted look crossing his face. He ducked his tan snout behind the shield he and his inversed companion were holding and had a rapid fire conversation of whispers that were unintelligible behind the red and silver metal. The guard abruptly popped his head and answered,

"Yes." Sam took a deep breath, thinking about the answer,

"Then," he paused puzzling out what he was about to say, "the other door leads to the castle, and this one leads to certain death!" Both of the guards looked utterly baffled, the red one whom Sam had addressed started,

"He could be telling the truth." Sam shook his head, his hair falling into his eyes,

"But then you would be lying. So if he said yes, the answer is no." He pushed his hair out of his eyes, allowing a smile to flirt with his lips. It was nice to do something right, but the two guards still looked muddled with his logic,

"I could be telling the truth!"

"But then he would be lying, so the answer is still no." There was definitely an edge of triumph to Sam's voice now, he started toward the blue door as the two guards started debating if he was right.

"I can't believe that I figured that out," Sam said. "That was way easier than I thought it would! This labyrinth isn't so hard!" Sam said as he pushed open the blue door and was delighted to see that there was no swinging axes or fire or anything else that would kill him. He stepped into the stone hallway with the dirt quieting his footsteps but before he had taken more than five steps, the ground fell away beneath him and he let out a strangled scream.

He tumbled into a dark hole, with sunlight streaming down to caress his face and revealing the things projecting out from the sides of the trap and were snagging his clothes and slowing his fall. As Sam came to stop, he saw that a bunch of bluish hands were keeping him from falling to his doom. The boy's eyes widened and his deep caught in his throat as he wanted the hands form faces in order to communicate with him.

"Stop it!" Sam shouted as the hands squeezed his arms, legs, sides and shoulders. He also didn't trust the beings very much that they wouldn't drop him. Oh this had been a terrible, terrible idea. He was sure that he had gotten the answer right and as long as there wasn't a pit of spikes below him, then he should have gotten the riddle correct. "Help!"

"We are helping!" The hands said as they formed a face with a large, flat nose and a higher pitched voice.

"We're helping hands," Another said in a deeper voice. This face was much larger than the first had been and its hands formed its noise with a triangle and was oddly symmetric since its eyes, mouth, and nose were all made up of two hands each.

"You're not very helpful since you're hurting me!" Sam snapped as he wished that he could wiggled free of the harsh grip of the hands but he was too scared of falling to his death to do such a thing.

He could almost feel the eyeroll that the hands couldn't accomplish,

"Would you like us to let go?" Sam froze,

"No!" Another face was formed by hands and it said,

"Well come on," a new face, "Which way?" they chorused, "Up or down?" Sam hesitated,

"Come on, we haven't got all day!" They said something else too, but Sam blocked them out, thinking. The labyrinth changed, so if he went up he would most likely find himself in a new environment that would allow him to continue on his search for a way to defeat the Goblin King, he was briefly distracted by the image, then the hands said something impossible to block out,

"Too late! Down it is!" Sam's shout of protest was ignored as he fell, decent slowed by the hands.

He landed with a thump on a dirt floor, the jagged grey stone walls were adorned with limp cobwebs and filled with a honey colored half light, Sam looked up as the hole he had fallen though closed. Sam turned his head as he heard footfalls on the soft ground.

Jareth watched Sam's descent into the oubliette with an eyebrow. The boy had traveled a great distance around the labyrinth already, he had moved so quickly that it was almost like the maze itself was arranging itself to help Sam or to exhaust him.

"He's in the oubliette," the king said to the goblins that surrounded him, with a frown on his face. The goblins began to cackle. The noise grinded against the king's ears and he grimaced.

"Shut up!" he snapped as he examined the orb more closely. "He should not have gotten that far. He should have given up by now."

'He should have handed himself over to me by now or just returned home but he has done neither,' Jareth thought to himself, his frown settling deeper into his face as he bounced Tabatha on his knee. "He'll never give up. The dwarf will lead him back to the beginning and then he'll give up when he realizes that he'll have to start from the beginning and he's no closer to knowing the words," Jareth said and began to laugh. The goblins sat silent around him and he nearly sighed. The creatures always laughed at the wrong moments. "Well, laugh!"

The goblins cackled as commanded and Jareth stood up and carried the baby girl back to his throne. This boy was proving to be very interesting but he would give up just like all the rest.

"Who's there?"

"Me," a familiar, crackly voice replied with a chuckle. Sam heard a match being struck and a bright burst of light that was the flame of the match appeared in the inky blackness that surrounded him now. The flame moved and then dispersed into several other places, allowing light to illuminate the room that Sam was trapped in.

"Oh it's you," Sam said as the light revealed the face of Hoggle. The lines in his grinning face were etched deeper by the dancing amber flames.

"Yes… well, I knew you were going to get in trouble as soon as I met you, so I've come to give you a hand," Hoggle said as Sam stared at the dark and dusty room he had fallen into. "Oh, you're looking around. I suppose you noticed there ain't no doors, only a hole. This is an oubliette. Labyrinth's full of 'em," Hoggle informed Sam as he gestured around the small space.

Sam slowly nodded, his long hair falling into his slightly. "I didn't know that," he whispered.

"You don't even know what an oubliette is!" Hoggle said, slightly indigent. Sam paused for a second, thinking about the word. It sounded slightly familiar, oubliette.

"C'est un endroit oublier un personne," Sam said.

"What?" Hoggle asked, confusion crossing his face.

"It's a place to forget a person," Sam translated. "I'm guessing a little bit but oubliette sounds similar to oublier which is to forget in French. My grandfather lives in France and I sometimes visit him for a few weeks in the summer so I can speak some French."

Hoggle just shook his head. "What you've got to do here is get out of here. I know a shortcut out the labyrinth," Hoggle said, sounding slightly proud. Sam had no idea what he had to proud of. Perhaps his knowledge of getting around the labyrinth with ease?

"I'm not going back to the beginning! I need to find someone who knows how to defeat the Goblin King!" Hoggle barked a quick mocking laugh,

"Ha! You? Trust me, you're in way over your head with Jareth." _Definitely_ , thought Sam, _he's way out of my league_. Then he pretended not to have that thought, looking at the bag at Hoggle's hip,

"You like jewelry, don't you?" Hoggle looked at Sam, large eyes narrowed in suspicion,

"Why?" Sam took a deep breath and reached to the back of his neck and undid the simple hook on the necklace he wore. He held the memento of a vacation preceding Tabitha in front of him, the shiny silver beads between wood and twine knots caught the candlelight and threw it back into the world slightly tarnished,

"If you help me find a way to defeat Jareth," Sam took a moment to savor the Goblin King's name on his lips, "I'll give you this. You like it, don't you?" Hoggle inspected the necklace, desire definitely etched in his rough features,

"Uhh... So-So," _Oh_ , "You give that to me, and I'll show you out of the Labyrinth." Sam's voice cracked with his confusion,

"You were going to do that anyway!" Hoggle's eyes didn't leave the necklace,  
"Well that's what would make it a particularly nice gesture on your part." Sam sighed and brushed his hair from his eyes.

"Alright. Just lead me as far as you can," Sam replied.

"What is that anyway?" Hoggle asked, eyeing the necklace that still lay in between Sam's fingers. Sam glanced down at the necklace.

"Plastic and wood," Sam replied, running a thumb over one of the beads. Hoggle nodded, eyeing the bracelet with increased interest.

"I don't promise nothing but I'll take you as far as I can. Then you're on your own, right?"

"Right," Sam confirmed and passed the necklace over to the dwarf. A small smile passed over his face, seeming slightly creepy in the dim light due to the shadows that were being thrown onto his face however the small man soon turned away and waddled over to far right side of the room where he picked up a wooden plank and leaned it up against the door. Sam watched as Hoggle mumbled to himself before opening up the wood like a door and was greeted by the loud clangs and clunks of pots, buckets, and cleaning supplies as it fell on the small creature.

"Bah! Broom closet!" Hoggle muttered as he kicked the fallen items out of the way and closed the door. He pulled it off the wall and flipped it away to it faced the other direction. "Well can't be right all the time," the dwarf said before opening the door once again. The door now lead into a passageway similar to the one that Sam had seen before he had fallen into the trap that he was now in, "Ah! This is it!" He turned to Sam, gesturing to the door, "Well, come on then!" Sam ducked and passed through the low doorway, flipping his hair out of his face as he rose again. Hoggle turned his face, making indecisive noises at the back of his throat until, "Aha! This way!" Sam looked around at the faces that were carved into the stone wall, the grey rock had a few strands of filtered light on it,

"Don't go on!" it said in a resonant baritone that almost echoed in the enclosed space and made Sam jump as he continued behind Hoggle.

"Go back while you still can!" a stone head said, sand falling from its mouth.

"This is not the way!" another said as Hoggle lead the way through the sandy trail.

"Take heed and go no further."

"Beware! Beware!" the fifth rockface said as the two males walked through the passageway. Sam felt doubt rise through his chest and wondered if Hoggle was leading him astray and into a trap. The Goblin King might have frightened him into it. Jareth did seem like the type to do something like that; afterall, he hadn't exactly given off the impression of someone who likes losing. Too bad Sam was far too determined to get his sister back to back down now. Now it was a battle of who could last longer.

"Soon it will be too late."

"Ignore them. They're just false alarms. You get them all the time in the labyrinth, especially when you're on the right track," Hoggle explained as he easily walked down the path. It seemed as if he traveled this way a lot or at least had done it several times before.

"Oh, no, you're not," yet another rockface said and Sam shook his head. It seemed like a sad and boring job to always be yelling at people and if they listened to you then some of your friends would have to remain silent until the next person arrived.

"Oh, shut up!" Hoggle shouted as he glared at the rockface.

"Sorry, just doing my job," he said as Sam and Hoggled moved onto the next stone.

"Beware, for the-" the final rockface started but Hoggle cut him off.

"Just forget it."

"Oh, please. I haven't said it for such a long time," the rock pleaded and Hoggle sighed.

"Oh, all right. But don't expect a big reaction," the dwarf said and paused to let the creature say its piece.

"No, no, no. Of course not," the rock said and cleared its throat. The loud, rumbling voice began anew, "For the path you take will lead to certain destruction! Thank you very much!"

A gleam caught Sam's eye and he turned around to see a round, clear crystal rolling down the hallway. Curiosity gripped him and against his better judgement, he decided to follow the crystal and see where it lead. Maybe it would lead him to Jareth and he could convince him to point him in the right direction. And maybe he wanted to see the king again but that wasn't the point. Hoggle was right on his heels, the crystal rolled toward a hooded creature at a dead end, squatting in the shadows. Sam and the dwarf stopped as it shed its cloak and revealed Jareth. In his regal, predatory grace, and pants that fit him like a second skin. Sam could only manage one noise,

"Uhhhahhhhuh..." The Goblin King's eyes wandered up and down Sam before flitting to Hoggle,

"Ahh... What have we here?" His voice caressed the air in a way that made Sam shake,

"Nothing!" Hoggle's bullfrog melody snapped both Sam and Jareth from distraction. The Goblin king narrowed his mismatched eyes at the dwarf,

"Nothing? Nothing? Nothing tra la la la?" Hoggle looked incredibly shifty under the amused hunter's gaze,

"Your Majesty! What a nice surprise!" Jareth rolled his eyes and they landed on Sam, who was focusing all of his will toward keeping his own eyes, elevated.

"Hello Hogwart." Jareth replied although his gaze was focused on Sam.

"Hoggle," the dwarf corrected quickly.

"Hoggle," Jareth repeating, "are you helping this boy?"

"H-Helping," Hoggle stuttered and Sam finally managed to tear his gaze away from the king. "In what sense?"

"In the sense that you're leading him toward the castle," Jareth replied.

"I was taking her back to the beginning!" Hoggle exclaimed and Sam jumped.

"What?" he yelled in surprised and glared down at Hoggle. That little!

"I told him that I would help her," Hoggle explained nervously. "A little trickery. But actually-"

Jareth suddenly bent down to Hoggle's level and looked at his hand. "What is that necklace wrapped around your hand?"

"Oh," Hoggle said and looked down at his hand which held the necklace that Sam had given him. "Oh, this! Where did this come from?"

"If I thought for one second that you were betraying me, I'd be forced to suspend you headfirst into the Bog of Eternal Stench," Jareth threatened as he stood back up.

Hoggle's eyes widened and he began to shake before throwing himself down to hug his king's knee. "No, your Majesty! Not the eternal stench!" he wailed.

"Oh, yes, Hoggle!" Jareth said as he shook the dwarf off of him and stalked toward Sam. "And you, Sam? How are you enjoying my labyrinth?" The king leaned closer to the boy as he said this, an arm resting on the wall, just inches above the head of black.

Sam pursed his lips to prevent himself from saying something stupid and closed his eyes. "Don't look down, don't look down," Sam whispered quietly to himself as Jareth watched the boy in amusement.

"And just why shouldn't you look down?" Jareth asked, a smile threatening to appear on his lips.

Sam swallowed as the king leaned even closer to him, closing the distance between their lips. 'Screw him!' Sam thought which quickly changed into, 'He can screw me whenever he wants.'

"Bad Sam, very bad Sam," Sam whispered and shook his head in an attempt to clear those thoughts from his mind.

"Oh?" The Goblin king's purr was sultry smoke curling in the minimal air between them, Sam cleared his throat to substitute for any other reprimands and turned his face away, after, well, _glancing_ down, "I'm waiting," Jareth whispered in his ear. _STOP IT! Well don't...wait, cut it out! You're too freaking distracting, Your Highness... Sam! Cut it OUT! He smells good...Really? Yeah... Oh wait, he does..._ Sam almost had to physically jerk to stop his train of thought from going any farther down that track. He allowed his eyes to flit back to Jareth. Against his, albeit distracted, voice of reason's suggestions,

"Your labyrinth is challenging as I would expect it to be on the second go-around." Sam found his voice coming out in a flirtatious little whisper that he didn't know he could manage. He could almost fall into the Goblin King's mismatched eyes, but instead he leaned on the wall for support,

"I'm sure." a light smile caressed Jareth's words, Sam almost sighed, "But, that doesn't answer my question." Jareth's gloved hand tilted Sam's face directly towards him, raising the hairs on the back of Sam's neck and locking the air in his chest. Jareth smiled, and almost melted away. Leaving Sam to slide down the stone wall, trying to remember what air was, and cold. "I'm glad that my labyrinth is living up to your expectations, Sam," Jareth said as he walked back so he stood near Hoggle. Sam was still struggling to remember what his own name was and failed to answer the King.

"But why don't we up the stakes?" Jareth purred as a crystal formed between his hands. Sam stared the crystal, wondering what the king was going to do with it, perhaps offer Sam his dreams again?

Jareth smirked as he whirled around and threw the crystal down the corridor and Sam watched in horror as the crystal burst and from the glittering shards, a dark form rose. A machine with a whirling spikes at the nose of the device roared toward the figures but the Goblin King disappeared as easily as he had come. Sam and Hoggle were left staring in horror at the contraption moved toward them

Hoggle recovered first and grabbed Sam's hand; he pulled the boy toward the other end of the hallway. "The cleaners!" he shouted in horror as the two began to run.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam wanted to ask questions but decided that it was best to ask questions later as he and the dwarf ran for their lives. Hoggle nearly tripped but Sam caught him just before he hit the ground and the two continued to run.

"Oh, the cleaners! The Bog of Stench, you sure got his attention!" Hoggle yelled and Sam nearly groaned. It was all good that he had managed to get the king's attention but it had been short lived and not the type of attention he craved. He wouldn't mind just being around Jareth for just a few more moments, staring into his eyes, maybe tasting those lips of his…

Sam snapped out of his thoughts as he saw a false wall and diverted his path to ram into it. Hoggle joined him in pushing the wall down as the cleaners kept closer to them. For a second, Sam was sure that the wall wasn't going to fall and that he and Hoggle would be the ones getting cleaned instead of the hallway but it fell away and a large smash and a dust cloud. Sam laid on the fallen wall for a few seconds, trying to accept that he and Hoggle were alive, and stared up at the swirling dust which danced through the small beam of light that came down from a small hole that lead up toward the surface. The bar of light was the spotlight which the dust danced through, glad to be free of its place on the wall.

"Oh, just what we need," Hoggle said as he stood up and dusted himself off. "A ladder!" Hoggle started to climb but realized that Sam was still on the floor. "Come on! Get up!" the dwarf ordered and the boy slowly sat up. "Good, good. Follow me!"

"How can I trust you?" Sam questioned, remembering the way that Hoggle had seemed so willing to sell him out and the fact that he apparently wasn't going to help him at all. "You said that you were going to take me back to the beginning." He understand the want to please the king but that wasn't enough to sell out a friend, was it? To go back on a deal?

"I wasn't. I was just telling him that to throw him off the scent." Sam's brow furrowed, doubts still running rampant in his mind,

"How can I believe anything you say?" Hoggle let out a frustrated huff,

"Let me put it this way: What choice do you have?" He had a point. Sam had to re-solve the labyrinth and find a way to defeat Jareth. And anyone who could pull off pants like that would be hard to beat. At anything,

"You're right." At the top of the ladder, Hoggle looked up at Sam and shook his head,

"You see. You've got to understand my position. I'm a coward," he gestured to the castle, "and Jareth scares me."

"What kind of position is that?" Hoggle turned and started walking, Sam at his heels,

"No position. That's my point." He started to slow his pace, "You wouldn't be so brave if you've ever smelt the bog of Eternal Stench. It- It's-" He shuddered and groaned.

"Is that all it does is smell?" Sam asked. That didn't seem too bad. I mean he had smelled some pretty disgusting rooms from some other teenage boys. There were some that smelled like something had died and had began to rot after rolling around in rotten eggs for a week.

"Believe me, that's enough. But the worst thing is, if you put a foot in the bog of stench, you'll smell bad for the rest of your life. It'll never wash off," Hoggle explained as he slowly climbed the ladder. Sam kept waiting a few rungs behind him since it took the dwarf much longer to climb due to his size. "Ahh! Here we are!" Hoggle said as he climbed through the hole of light and out into the open. Sam slowly followed and climbed over the side of a vase in a garden.

"Here we are, then. You're on your own from now on," Hoggle said, standing with his hands on his hips as he observed the garden.

Sam stared down at the dwarf in shock. That was it? "Wait a minute," Sam shouted as Hoggle began to waddle away. "Hoggle!"

"I said that I would take you as far as I could!" Hoggle replied.

Sam growled, feeling cheated. "You nasty little cheat!" Hoggle looked mildly offended,

"Now don't try and embarrass me, I've got no pride." Sam narrowed his eyes and almost smiled when he saw the mesh bag at Hoggle's hip. Making a split second decision he snatched the bag of glittering gems and jewelry while saying,

"Oh yeah?" The dwarf stood still as the gnarled tree he resembled before starting forward sputtering,

"But-but them's my jewels!" his surprise metamorphosed into anger and he barked, "You give them back! Give them back!" Hoggle was swinging his arms in punches that never reached Sam because the latter was keeping Hoggle at bay by pushing the dwarf's head so he didn't move, all the while Hoggle was shouting, "Give those back! Oh give those back to me!"

Sam nearly laughed at the dwarf's childish behavior as he pushed the struggling dwarf back so he fell down. With a smile, Sam turned around and looked for the castle. Spotting it in the distance, he nodded slowly. "Now. There's the castle," he mused aloud, staring at it, keeping the jewels above Hoggle's height so he couldn't grab them. "Which way should we try."

Hoggle stood, trembling with rage and an annoyed look on his wizened look. He marched toward Sam, staring at the jewels in the boy's hand. "Them's my rightful property!" He shook his small fists, "It's not fair!" Sam arched an eyebrow at the dwarf, after he was transported here due to use of the wrong magical phrase after a half-sister that had stolen what attention he had, plus giving him the closest thing to a migraine possible from her screams; then having the most alluring creature in all of existence distracting him from an almost heartless rescue made him answer,

"No, it isn't. But that's the way it is."

"Ohhhh..." A new voice drifted into audibility from behind, making both of them spin around. An old man hobbled toward them with a… decapitated ostrich on his head? Sam frowned, staring at the hat and wondering just what had impelled the man to do such a thing.

"Um… Excuse me," Sam said unsurely, "please. Can you help me?" The old man sat down in chair and looked up at the two figures that stood in front of him.  
"Oh! A young boy!" he said in surprise. Sam nodded, partly wondering why that was a such a surprise. The hat cooed and Sam jumped. Had that hat just talked? But it was just a hat and it was a bird at that. That shouldn't be possible but a lot of this shouldn't be possible. For example, such an exquisite creature as Jareth shouldn't be able to single, not that Sam was complaining.

"And who is this?" the wiseman asked, gesturing to Hoggle.

"My friend," Sam replied, glancing down at the smaller man. Hoggle stared up at him, confused as Sam looked back at the strange man.

"Oh. What can I do for you?" the man asked, leaning back in his chair.

"I must find a way to defeat your king in order to get my younger sister back and find a way back to the castle at the center of the labyrinth. Do you know how?" Sam asked. Hoggle made a weird sound as Sam finished his question and it was then that he realized that this was a really dangerous question to be asking, especially when Sam didn't know just how loyal the citizens of this maze were to their king. The man didn't seem to register that, he responded,

"Ah" a noise which his bird head mimicked in a higher, scratchier tone, "oh, so you want to get to the castle." Sam opened his mouth to include the "defeat Jareth" part, but the ostrich head interrupted,

"How's that for brainpower, huh?" The man glared up through his generous white eyebrows that fell over the sides of his face,

"Be quiet!" The bird hat, for its part, didn't look the least bit ashamed of his interjection, only rather disappointed,

"Aw, nuts!" the weathered old man turned his brown eyes back to Sam and looked down his prominent nose,

"So, young man, the way forward is sometimes the way back." The bird snorted, voicing Sam's initial thoughts,

"Aye! Will you listen to this crap?"

"Will you please be quiet!" the man's voice wasn't really equipped to shout admonishments to a hat, but the wheezing sternness got his point across, the ostrich looked down,

"All right." The hat looked slightly hurt at the man's rush to quiet the hat but also annoyed.

"Ok?" the man asked, looking upward as if trying to see his hat.

"Ok," the hat replied, still looking slightly hurt and refusing to try to even look at its owner. Sam tried to hid a grin as he imagined the two as two small children.  
"All right," the man said, looking satisfied at the thought that he wouldn't be interrupted again.

"All right, sorry," the hat replied, an indignant look still on its face. The man looked slightly annoyed for a moment again.

"Done?" the man asked.

"Yes," the hat said but Sam had a feeling that it wasn't. It would likely only be quiet for a few seconds and then it would be trying to give advice again.

"Quite often, young man, it seems that we're not getting anywhere when in fact…" the man began again and then paused, trying to find a good way to finish his advice. The hat sighed and piped up again.

"We are," it finished.

"We are," the wise man replied, nodding his head.

"Well, I'm not really getting anyway at the moment," Sam replied, gesturing around him. He hadn't really gotten any advice and he wasting time. He didn't know much time he had left but he knew it probably wasn't enough, especially if everyone was going to be as helpful as this man.

"Ha!" the hat snort. "Join the club." It glanced down to see how the old man would react but was greeted by a snore. Sam stared at the man who had fallen asleep in a matter of two seconds.

The hat sighed and shook its head. "I, uh, I think that's your lot. Please leave a contribution in the little box," it said as a shaking hand held out a small, wooden box with a slit in the top.

Sam looked down at the box, trying to think about what he could give to the hat. He looked down at the bag at he had attached to his waist while the hat and wise man were fighting. He stared at it unsurely as he grabbed it. Hoggle noticed his actions and the dwarf's eyes widened.

"Don't you dare. Them's mine!" Hoggle said, pointing a finger at Sam. Sam nodded and dropped the bag and examined his hands for something else to give.  
His eyes landed on a simple circlet of copper on his middle finger, he shrugged and pulled it off,

"I guess I can spare this." And he dropped it into the box where it landed with a thud.

"Gracias, señor." Hoggle still looked sullen and he grumbled at Sam,

"You didn't have to give him that, he didn't tell you nothing." Sam was already walking away, and Hoggle continued his muted tirade. Sam could just hear the Hat say,

"Well well, then. There go a couple of suckers." That was greeted by another snore, "Ah! It's so stimulating being your hat." Sam chose to ignore this, rather than be offended by the missing appendage of a decapitated ostrich. Hoggle broke the brief silence that had settled over them after the exchange with the hat,

"Why did you tell him I was your friend?" Sam looked down at him,

"Because you are, not much of one, but you're the only friend I've got." Though he wouldn't mind 'making friends' with Jareth. "No stop that!" he hissed at himself, Hoggle didn't notice,

"Cor! Huh." Sam looked up, a sound wafting into his perception,

"Did you hear something?" Hoggle shook his head, "No, that's all right." But Sam kept looking around,

"Friend, Huh! I like that. I ain't never been someone's friend before." That's when a scream ripped the air making them both jump.

"Oh! Goodbye!" Hoggle said, trying and running away from the direction that the scream had come from.

"Wait a minute! Are you my friend or not?" Sam shouted, suddenly scared of being alone. Was someone being hurt? Or was it some kind of battle cry? Did the goblins have battle cries? What would happen if the goblins caught him? It didn't seem likely that such a thing would happen considering that they didn't seem very capable of much from what Sam had seen in the throne room but surely they could fight, right? Would they take him prisoner? And what would they do with him if they did; take him back to the castle?

Sam found the idea doubtful but he was slightly curious now. Did the goblins ever have to take prisoners and what were the punishments? Was Jareth that one that usually did the punishing? That couldn't be too bad, right?

"What is wrong with you?" Sam whispered to himself, trying to get rid of the thoughts that suddenly attacked his brain about ways the king could punish people.  
Hoggle had waddled quite a distance away and finally replied to Sam's question. "No! Hoggle ain't no one's friend. He looks after himself, like everyone else. Hoggle is Hoggle's friend!"

Sam blinked, shocked. Hadn't the dwarf just been saying how nice is was to be called someone's friend. He honestly had no loyalty and he was just as much of a coward as he had said. "Hoggle! You coward!" Sam called after the retreating form. Honestly, why did he fear Jareth so? The only thing to fear about him was those alluring eyes of his and god, those pants.

"That's it, I need a timeout," Sam muttered as he turned back to the path in front of him. "Later, however," he added as another roar practically shook the ground with its intensity. He was pretty sure that no goblin could make that noise, war cry or not.

"Well, I'm not afraid," Sam decided. "After all, everything isn't what is seemed around here. Maybe the thing making so much noise is nice?"

Sam crept further into the hedge maze that he and Hoggle had just entered and around a corner. There was a more open area here and he stumbled backwards when he realized that there were four goblins surrounding something that was hanging a trap that was attached to a tree. Sam frowned and the creature roared and tried to swat the goblins that were surrounding. However it kept missing and the goblins just laughed at its attempts. They really were such horrible creatures, they didn't deserve such a fantastic looking king.

"Try this for size, Yeti!" one of the goblins shrieked as it suddenly swung forward a stick that had an odd creature on top of it. It had human looking skin but it had a strange head. The head was much larger than its skeletal thin body. It had three fingers and backwards looking feet with talons which helped it cling to the stick. It reminded Sam of the head of a T-Rex with squinty, purple eyes or some other dinosaur and he saw that it had sharp teeth that were used to bite the fuzzy creature that was apparently a yeti?

"We got you now, fuzzball!" another goblin agreed as they cackled. The monster yowled in pain as it was attacked again. Sam looked around the thick green hedge that blocked his view. The "Yeti" was a massive creature with thick brown fur and large, floppy ears. The goblins cackled as they continued to attack the screaming creature. Despite its odd appearance, Sam hated to see what was happening at the hands of the very undeserving goblins,

"If only I had something to throw!"

"Bite him on the teriyaki!"

"Saki to him! Saki to him!" they continued to cackle as the monster screamed again. Sam looked down as something nudged his foot. A smooth, rock, the size of his fist. He snatched it up and let it fly. It hit one of the goblins squarely on the helmet with a _clank_. The creature's helmet spun around on its head,

"Oh! What happened? Who turned out the lights?" He started swinging the pole with the tiny biting creature around wildly, "I can't see!" In his own confusion, the goblin bit one of its fellows,

"AH! Why'd you bite me?!" another goblin chimed in,

"Who bite who?"

"I can't see! I can't see!" Another rock nudged Sam's foot, he almost smiled as he threw it. Another goblin's helmet spun on its head,

"We're under attack!" The goblin that yelled started running in blind, hysterical circles. Another yelled,

"Retreat!" All four started running away from the clearing, leaving the beast they had caught in their trap.

As they ran, Sam had some last trailing comments that were slightly confusing. One asked who had bit him, as it he was actually expecting someone to admit that they had done so. But it was the last one's comment that confused him so much.

"Oh, my aching sushi!" one called as they others shrieked and forced their mounts to hurry away. Sam stared after them, confused about what the goblins thought sushi was and also wondering just what the mounts were. He hadn't gotten a very good look at them but he had more important things to be concerned with than the goblins. The yeti was flailing around, trying to free itself and was growling.

"YARRGH!" it said as Sam slowly walked toward it. "YARRGH! YARRGH!" it whined as Sam reached him and examined the creature in front of him.

"Hey, stop that," Sam said softly.

"YARRGH!" it growled again, swiping the air but it seemed to pause and think about Sam's words. "Hmm?"

"I'm just here to help you and that's no way to treat your rescuer," Sam said in the same soft voice. It seemed to be soothing the yeti just as Sam had hoped and it no longer seemed quite as concerned about freeing itself. "Don't you want me to help you down?" Sam asked.

"Ludo," the creature said in a deep, rumbly voice that made Sam think of small, falling rocks for some reason, "down."

"Ludo?" Sam repeated, tilting his head so he was staring into the creature's brown eyes. He smiled softly, "Is that your name?"

"Ludo," the creature repeated. Sam nodded.

"That's a nice name," he said as he backed away to get a better look at the situation. "You seem like a kind creature. I just hope you are what you seem to be," he said as he thought he found a way to disable the trap. The rope wound over a branch but was attached to one of the roots of the tree that poked out of the ground.

As Sam moved to untie the rope, Ludo began to growl away.

"Hang on a second," he called as he bent down. "I'll get you down." His hands fumbled around for a moment, trying to loosen the knot enough so he could untie it. It took a moment but once the knot was loosen, it just unraveled, surprising the boy so he didn't grab it like he was planning to.

Ludo tumbled to the ground onto his back, the rope falling down with him. Sam scrambled to his feet, regret filling his body.

"Ludo, are you alright? I'm sorry!" Sam said as he crouched down beside the yeti who was slowly sitting up.

Ludo groaned, "Oh. Ah. Huh," he said, staring at Sam. "Oh. Friend?"

Sam smiled. "That's right, I'm Sam."

"Hrrh, Sam," Ludo said. He drew the name out slightly but it made Sam smile. The creature reminded him of a small child, older than Tabatha but not quite in school yet.

"Sam, friend. Yeah." Ludo nodded his large head slowly, letting the words rumble out in a leisurely cadence. The slight smile that had been playing at the corners of Sam's lips widened, even though he needed to focus, he put his hand on Ludo's massive shoulder and said,

"Now, just wait a second. I want to ask you something, Ludo." The beast turned his head to face him,

"Huh? What?"

"Do you know a way to find a way to the center of the labyrinth?" Sam briefly wondered if it was too much to ask, but he decided to try, "or how to defeat the king?" Ludo mulled this over, allowing indecisive noises to resonate into the world until,

"No..."

"You don't know either? I wonder if anyone knows..." he trailed off. Jareth probably did, though the likelihood of that playful predator would end the game so soon was near nonexistent. Although, there were other games to play... "Stop it!" he hissed at himself.

"Well Ludo, would you mind helping me find someone that can help me get through this labyrinth?" he asked. The friendly, brown creature nodded, giving Sam a smile and the two set off, following the stone path that the goblins had taken as they had fled.

The two walked for a while until they reached a wall in which two wooden doors stood. Both had decorated knockers with two brass faces. One had the round handle in its large, pointed ears, mean eyes, and a small nose. The second one had a jutting mouth from the handle in it, droopy eyes that looked a little stern and a large nose.

Sam regarded both doors, thinking that it was strange to have them here but at the same it time it made some sense; well just as must sense as the rest of this place. Although where the doors led was a true mystery but Sam could only hope that they didn't lead back to the beginning.

"I wonder where these doors came from," Sam mused. Maybe Jareth had just added them in for no reason at all? Well Ludo, which door should we choose?" Sam asked.

Before Ludo could reply, another voice cut them off. "It's very rude to stare!" a loud voice said. It was apparently the knocker with the handle in its ears. It regarded the two with a glare.

"Oh! I was just wondering which door to choose, I'm sorry if I appeared rude," Sam replied quickly, flashing the door his best smile.

Mumbled grunts suddenly came from his right as Sam turned to see the mouth of the second knocker moving but its speech was garbled by the metal ring. Sam stared at it, trying to make sense of the sound he had heard. Hs df asa pft? Or was it mh dh hsa pft?

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" the first knocker admonished.

"I'm nt tlking wth my mth fl," the second knocker said, letting out an annoyed puff. Sam understood that sentence and quickly stepped forward.

"Here, let me," he said as he grabbed the knocker and pulled it out of his mouth. He passed the metal ring over to Ludo as he stepped back once again.

"What did you say?" the first knocker asked as the second pursed its lips and wiggled its jaw.

"Oh, it's so good to get that thing out!" the knocker with the large nose said.

"Now, what were you saying?" Sam asked, remembering how he hadn't been able to understand the first sentence the knocker had said.

"It's no good talking to him," the knocker said, shifting its gaze to its companion door who was staring off in the distance, apparently not paying attention. "He's deaf as a post."

"Mumble, mumble, mumble. You're a wonderful conversation companion," the first knocker said, rolling its eyes. It had been paying attention but just didn't understand what was being said. The poor knockers probably hadn't had a decent conversation in years considering one couldn't speak very well and one couldn't hear.

"Well all you do is moan!" the second knocker said.

"No good," the first knocker sniffed. "Can't hear you." Sam smiled, enjoying the two knockers talk. They were honestly quite funny.

"Where do these doors lead?" Sam asked, remembering his first thoughts from seeing the two doors.

"What?" the first knocker yelled, still unable to hear. Sam wondered if there was a way to remove the ring that in both of its ears but it didn't look like it would just pop out as the other one had done, he looked at Sam and replied,

"Search me, we're just knockers." Sam sighed,

"How do I get through?" Ludo growled his assent as the first knocker said,

"Huh?"

"Knock and the door will open." Sam looked between the two doors with their queer knockers, trying to decide which one to go through. Ludo was following the motions of Sam's head, making deep throated rumbles of indecisiveness. Sam's hand hand hovered briefly over the knocker protruding from the first knocker's batlike ears, but changed his mind.

"Ah!" Sam took the ring from Ludo-which he had put in his massive mouth- and hung it over the second Knocker's head.

"Figured you didn't want this back in your mouth, considering."

"Ah, well, Thank you!"

"What?" Sam swung the ring and a knock resounded across the old wooden door,

"Come on, Ludo." The beast grumbled and shook his shaggy head as he followed Sam into the thick, dark foliage that lay behind the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam and Ludo entered a dark forest with several low hanging branches already beginning to block their way. Light brown trees marked the sides of a path. Gray boulders popped up randomly and the trees seemed to sparkle just slightly.

"Well this is nice?" Sam said as he and Ludo walked a little ways into the forest. "It doesn't seem too bad, right?"

Ludo seemed to disagree since he was making strange noises under his breath. "Ludo scared!"

"Hey, it's all right," Sam said comfortingly and held out his hand. "You can hold my hand until we get through this, okay?" Sam pulled the large creature along all while amusingly thinking that it was funny how such a big creature was so easily frightened. You really couldn't judge a book by its cover.

"See, Ludo," Sam said softly, "nothing to be afraid of." Ludo gently pulled away from Sam, his fright apparently gone. Sam smiled as he continued to walk further into the forest.

Suddenly Sam heard a soft 'oh' behind him and the loud stomps of Ludo disappeared. He whirled around, looking for the yeti.

"Ludo?" Sam asked once he saw that Ludo wasn't behind him. "Ludo? Ludo?" Sam shouted. "Ludo, where are you?"

Meanwhile, Jareth was doing his best not to think of the boy who was running his labyrinth and was trying to focus on taking care of the young child who had been so selfishly wished away. She was actually pretty cute in a helpless way although she did seem to enjoy crying. The goblins weren't that frightening, besides their smell, but the child seemed to think so.

The goblins were actually playing some game of theirs. They ran around the throne room chasing a ball and screaming to each other.

"Get the ball in the-"

"Da da da-"

"You see-" the goblins shouted.

Jareth smiled down at the child he was bouncing on his knee,

"She's actually quite lively, got my eyes." He then directed his thoughts away from how that was possible while the goblins cackled away. Jareth paused, hearing something, a perfectly spherical crystal appeared in his hand and he watched Hoggle grumbling as he moved through the jungle.

" _Hoggle! Help!"_ Sam must've noticed the dwarf gone, or upon being alone, panicked. A panther's smile toyed with Jareth's lips until,

" _I'm coming, Sam!"_ No. This mustn't be allowed. Jareth left Tabatha on his throne and almost teleported onto Hoggle,

"Well, if it isn't you." Jareth purred, although he was seething, "And where are you going?" Hoggle shifted his weight from leg to leg,

"Well, uh, the boy gave me the slip, but I-I hears 'im now. So I was going to find 'im and bring 'im back to the beginning... like-like you told me to..." The dwarf trailed off. Leaving Jareth a moment to tame the unusual feeling of jealousy that had boiled up when he saw Hoggle going to the rescue. He gave a mirthless smile,

"I see. You understand, I thought, for a moment, that you were running to help him." _Which you were..._ "but oh no, not after my warnings, that would be stupid." Hoggle looked increasingly more uncomfortable,

"You bet it would! Me? Help him? After your warnings?" He laughed nervously, and Jareth found it harder to keep his lightly amused smile in place of a snarl. _He's mine, Hogwart. Mine._ He almost jumped as that thought crossed his mind, and then decided to ignore it, like he was trying to ignore the jealousy. Of Hoggle, of all people.

Jareth glared slightly at Hoggle when he suddenly noticed something different about the dwarf and bent down slightly to get a closer look. As he thought, the porch of trinkets that Hoggle usually wore was missing and he wondered if the missing jewels had something to do with the dwarf's sudden act of bravery. Yes, that must be it. But if it was anything else, then poor Hogwarts would definitely pay for ever thinking that such a lovely creature as Sam could ever love a beast such as him.

"Oh dear, poor Hoghead," Jareth said, flashing a quick smile, and thinking that the dwarf was anything but poor.

"Hoggle," Hoggle corrected though the king ignored him.

"I've just noticed that your lovely jewels are missing." Hoggle gave a start at the news and looked down at his side as if he couldn't believe it but as he looked his king in the eyes again, the memory had clearly been remembered.

"Uh, oh, yes!" Hoggle stuttered, "So they are. My lovely jewels are missing." Jareth cocked his head to the side slightly. Considering how possessive he had seemed of the jewels, the dwarf didn't seem very worried about the missing items. So that meant that he likely knew where they were and there was only one person that could get away with such a thing. His dear, precious Sam had stolen the dwarf's jewels. The thought nearly made him cackle with joy. Oh that _naughty_ boy.

"Ludo!" Sam yelled and Jareth looked up slightly. Who was he calling for and why was it not him? Oh well, soon enough that boy would be screaming his name if Jareth got his way. The king stood abruptly, growing more and more troubled by his thoughts. They weren't very fitting of a king.

"I'd better find 'im!" Hoggle said, drawing Jareth's attention back to him. "But first, I'm off to go take the little man back to the beginning of the labyrinth."

A plan began to form in Jareth's mind and he smiled. Oh yes, that was an excellent plan to get Sam to fall for him. That foolish boy didn't know who he was messing with and Jareth would make sure that he would never forget just who the Goblin King was because he was about to become his whole world.

"Wait!" Jareth commanded the retreating dwarf. "I've got a much better plan." He froze and waited as Jareth quickly summoned a ripe peach into his hand. He rolled it around and was satisfied with the spell. He tossed it to Hoggle who caught it with a surprised look. "Give him that."

"What is it?" Hoggle asked, staring down at the fruit.

"It's a present," Jareth replied. Oh yes, it would be a present of both of them.

"It won't hurt him, right?" Hoggle asked and the king felt rage well up inside of him. How dare this little cockroach question if he would ever hurt that darling boy? Why would he ever dream of harming such a beautiful creature when he could simply have him by his side?

"Now, why the concern?" Hoggle continued to shift his weight back and forth,

"I won't hurt him." It was almost physically taxing for Jareth to keep the word 'duh' from leaving his mind, it was almost painfully obvious,

"Come, Hogbrain! I'm surprised at you! Losing your head over a boy." _Even one as lovely_.

"I ain't losing my head!" Hoggles voice was slightly more shrill as he got defensive, which stirred Jareth's mixed rage and jealousy,

"You don't think a young boy could like a repulsive little scab like you. Do you?" _Do I_? Jareth paused and half ignored Hoggle as he stammered,

"Well, he said we was-"

"What, friends?"

"Ahh, it don't matter." Jareth refused to allow himself to wonder how much it did matter. These thoughts were far from his aloof self, he wasn't sure how much he liked them in hindsight. It was hard for the king to admit how much he liked them in the moment.

"You'll give that to him, Hoggle. Or I'll tip you headfirst into the Bog of Eternal Stench." Jareth could almost see Hoggle give in when he said,

"Yes. Right." And started to leave. A thought crossed Jareth's mind and he spoke before he could filter the jealousy from the phrase.

"And, Hoggle, if he ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince." The dwarf's eyes widened in shock,

"You- you will."

"Prince of the land of stench!" Mirthless laughter came right on its heels as Hoggle's surprise and hope dissolved from his face and he hurried away.

Meanwhile Sam was wandering around the forest, looking everywhere for his large and furry friend. He called his name a few more times, hoping that he would somehow hear. He just didn't understand what could have happened. How did Ludo just suddenly disappear on him? Had Jareth done it? But why would he do something like that? He couldn't be that cruel, right?

"God damn it, Jareth; you just love messing with me," Sam mumbled as he trudged into a clearing. He looked around and spotted a circle of rocks in the center. He slowly approached, trying to figure out its purpose but the only thing that came to mind was the rocks were used to contain a campfire.

A loud snap sounded behind the boy, causing him to whirl around. He didn't see anyone at first as he peered into the dark forest then he heard a quick tap, tap from behind him. He turned on his heel again, bright eyes furiously searching for who or what had made the sound.

"What's going on?" he whispered, not fully meaning for the words to slip from his lips.

A loud yowl suddenly split the air along with loud laughter. Sam scanned the area surrounding him again before several red creatures leapt out of the woods at him. He stumbled back. "What do you want?" he demanded. Then he realized that perhaps that was a silly question as it should really be the other way around.

"Yahoo!" one replied as another seemed to hear his question. It gave him a large grin.

"We're out to have a good time!" it replied as it began to dance. Sam stared at the strange creatures, taking in their red skin. They sort of looked shaved, similar to a poodle's haircut. Orange, red and white fur covered their heads, chests, hips and part of their thighs, along with their ankles. Their stomachs and legs were pink skin. They had human like hands and feet but long claws. They also had long ears. Some of the faces were long and had an animal like snout but one had a more human like face with a large nose. The four creatures just shook their hips, surrounding Sam.

"That's right!" another creature replied to the first.

One of the creatures dragged its foot along the ground and tossed something into the circle of rocks, creating a campfire.

The others yeah and cheered and then they burst into song.

"I don't have no problems!" one sang and the others joined in and chorused, "no problems."

"Ain't got no suitcase!"

"No suitcase!"

Sam began to back away from both the strange creatures and the fire. He glanced about, trying to keep all of them in his sight as they danced around and hung off of the trees that surrounded them.

"Ain't go no clothes to worry about, ain't got no real estate or jewelry or gold to hang me up," the creature sang. Sam frowned. Why were these things singing about such normal things? Was this world not so different from his own or did they just know about real estates and suitcases for some reason?

"I just throw in my hand," the leader sang as he removed his hand and then tossed it into the fire.

"Throw in his hand!" the others sang. Sam quickly backed away, wondering just what insane creatures he had run into. Give him the goblins any day, they were much better than these things.

"With the chilliest bunch in the land," the leader sang again and then pointed to its hand which had somehow regrown even though Sam had seen him remove it and burn it. What were these things and how did they have instant regeneration?

"They don't look much," the others sang.

"But they're sure chilly chilly. They're positively glow glow, huh!"

"Chilly down with the wild gang! Think small with the wild gang! Bad hep with the wild gang!" they sang and danced around Sam. Meanwhile, Sam was beginning to panic a little and was seriously hoping that he could somehow escape but they had him completely surrounded and he still wasn't sure just what they wanted. A dance partner? That he could do but what if he ended up offending them or something?

"Don't lose your head!' one shouted and Sam wondered if their heads were another thing that they could lose.

"When your thing gets wild… chilly down, chilly down with the wild gang!" They got down like they were going to do a pushup before springing up to dance again.

"Hey, I'm a wild child!" one of them called.

"Walk tall with the wild gang!" they all shimmied along to their song.

"Whoo! Walk tall!" a very tall one of the creatures yelled, drawing himself up to be even taller.

"Good times, bad food!" they sang, still dancing.

"Bleh! Blud blud blud blud!" the creature with the most round and fairly human like face stuck his tongue out and shook his head back and forth. His tongue was between his fingers to create the noise and Sam just looked on, slightly horrified by what he was seeing but he wasn't sure why. The creatures were just so weird and they seemed like they could be out of a nightmare.

"When your thing gets wild chilly down, chilly down!" Sam began to wonder if there was a little bit more meaning behind this song but didn't think too much about it. He just wanted to get out of there.

Suddenly the main singer poked out his eyes with two of his fingers. Sam felt sick as he backed away. Well it was clear that these guys were missing some nerves because it didn't ever look like that hurt. How did these things function?

"Yeah!"

"Roll 'em!" the creatures cheered. The one with the missing eyes shook his eyes and then tossed them across the ground.

"Snake eyes!" they cheered as the eyes rolled to a stop and glowed red. Sam wasn't sure if the red was from the fire or as a warning to leave before things got any worse. He was going to take it as the latter if only to get out of there.

He backed away as the creatures laughed and the one with the missing eyes scooped them up and tossed them into the air. Sam wondered what he was doing when he opened his mouth and caught them like grapes. With an exaggerated gulp, he swallowed the eyes then opened his actual ones to reveal that the eyeballs had returned to his head.

"All right!"

"Whoo!" they cheered. One took its head off and began to toss it around. One bounced it like a basketball until the head got sick of it and bit the arm of the one bouncing it. The head was tossed away to another two, one of whom removed its leg and used it as a golf club to the hit the head.

"Fore!" he shouted as the head went flying back its original owner.

"So when things get too rough," the one whose head had just been returned sang.

"Your skin is dragging on the ground," the one with the deep voice sang as it dragged one its friends along on the ground.

"And even down looks up," another sang.

"Down looks up!" the others chimed. Two of them hung down from the trees, slightly trapping Sam for a few seconds as he stared at the two of them. He was curious about these creatures but also scared of them.

"Bad luck!" the one with the deep voice said. Sam couldn't help but wonder if that was actually part of the song or if the creature was saying it was bad luck that Sam had been caught sneaking away. He didn't get an answer as they laughed before breaking into song each again.

"We can show you a good time!" one sang as another rolled by, using its head like a wheel. Sam blinked and wondered if he had been drugged for the first time. It seemed fairly likely considering what he was seeing right now. The only question was when he had been drugged and who had done it. He hoped it wasn't Jareth. It would definitely take away his appeal if Sam found out he was into drugging people.

"Show you a good time!" the others sang.

"And we don't change nothing'," one sang. That didn't sound dirty at all…

"Nothing' at all!"

"Just strut your nasty stuff, wiggle in the middle, yeah! Get the town talking, by god," one sang as they others began their chorus.

"Chilly down with the wild gang!" One ran by with its limbs all in disarray. It looked a little bit like a dog or something but much more scary.

"Think small!" one said as it also ran by not looking like its normal self. It looks more like an ostrich than anything else. Suddenly it fell forward and two of the creatures sprang apart.

"Think small with the wild gang!"

"Bad help!"

"Bad hep, happy wild gang!"

"Hey, listen up!" one called as one stomped its foot so hard, its leg came flying up and hopped away.

"When your thing gets wild, chilly down, chilly down with the wild gang!"

One suddenly came up behind Sam as he began to sneak away and grabbed his head.

"Shake your pretty little head!" it commanded.

"Tap your pretty little feet," another said as they surrounded him. The one holding his head began to yank and Sam let out a yell of pain. He began to shake his torso, trying to get him off as he grabbed the creature's hands and began to pull them away from his head.

"Good times, bad food!" they sang.

"Come on, come on!" one said.

"Hey!" the one on Sam's back said as he fell off. "His head don't come off!"

"Of course it doesn't!" Sam yelled as he backed away, breaking the circle the kept him from running.

"Hey mister, where you go with a head like that?" one of them asked. Sam gave him a confused look before sprinting off in the other direction and through the twisting, dark forest. He so was not in the mood to deal with anymore of that craziness. He was already crazy for not trying to get away sooner but they had just been too weird to turn away from. The only redeeming factor was in the fact it wasn't a hallucination. His neck really hurt.

"Hoggle!" Sam screamed as he ran. He was hoping for some kind of help in order to get out of this place."Hoggle! Ludo!" He continued to yell for his friends but no one appeared magically in front of him so he just continued to run in the hopes of getting out of this place or at least escaping the creatures that were chasing him. Soon he couldn't hear the strange beings following him and he slowed his pace to a light jog, and eventually a walk. Sam sighed and rubbed his neck, leaning against a massive stone wall that was almost like the first he encountered. It spread its arms almost infinitely, but they were adorned with tall dark vines.

"Hey, you can look like us!" Sam's head swiveled to the source of the shout. The birdlike creatures were dancing toward him, apparently having caught up to him.

"Get a saw!" Sam moaned and started to move down the wall, looking for vines that stretched all the way to the top, with no avail. They got closer, playing volleyball with their heads. Sam pressed himself against the wall, not entirely sure what to do, until a branch poked him sharply on the shoulder,

"Hoggle!"

"Come on!" Sam grabbed the gnarled branch and began his ascent. However, he only got part of the way up when one of the creatures lunged at him and accidentally pulled him off of the branch. Sam let out a scream as he fell down, the creature on his back screaming and apologizing as they both neared the ground.

"Jareth!" Sam screamed, shutting his eyes and waiting for the pain of the fall. But it never came.

Sam slowly opened his eyes, and was met by a mismatched gaze staring down at him. He heard the creatures that had been chasing him running away with whispers about the fact that the king was there. Sam just kept staring at the eyes of his savior, his heart beating so quickly that he was thought it must be approaching the speed of light.

"T-Thank you," Sam whispered as he was slowly lowered to the ground. He and Jareth held each other's gazes for another few moments before the king summoned one of his glass orb and disappeared with a flash. It was only after the man had left that Sam felt like he could breathe normally and his adrenaline began to die down.

"Sam!" a voice called down from the high wall that Sam had been attempting to climb. He looked up to see Hoggle was again looking down on him and he waved to his friend. The branch was lowered once again and Sam began to scale the wall once again, but he felt as if he was floating.

Jareth had saved him. The king had saved him. The thought brought a smile to his face but he was quick to reprimand himself. This was the man that had stolen his little sister, although at his own command, and had thrown him into this mess where he was sure that he was going to be home late and have to explain to his parents where he and Tabatha had gone which he most certainly wasn't looking forward to. Honestly, what had he even been thinking considering the fact that he had 13 hours to find his sister. 13! His parent were supposed to be home by midnight.

Finally Sam managed to reach the top of the wall and looked out at the forest that he had just passed through.

"Is yous alright, Sam?" Hoggle asked and Sam looked down at the dwarf who was gazing up at him with worry clear in his gaze.

Sam shot him a hopefully reassuring smile and nodded. "Yeah, thanks for coming to save me."

"Well I didn't really save yous," Hoggle mumbled and Sam bent down so they were at eye level and gave the dwarf an even bigger smile.

"Well I'm standing on top of this wall because of you, right?"

"Yous also almost fell cause of me."

Sam rolled his eyes as Hoggle shifted from side to side.

"It was my own fault along with that creature's. If you hadn't been here they would have caught me sooner."

Hoggle still didn't look convinced and Sam sighed before grabbing the dwarf and pulling him into a hug and he leaned down to give the dwaf a friendly kiss on the head but immediately Hoggle began to freak out and tried to wiggle out of his grasp.

"No! No! No!" Hoggle yelled as Sam grabbed hold of him yet again.

"Why? It's just a kiss," Sam said although he didn't try to kiss the dwarf again.

Jareth, who was watching Sam in one of his crystals, nearly summoned a storm with the roiling emotions that came with Sam, that beautiful, determined creature whom he had just _saved_ hug Hoggle. And try to kiss the dwarf no less! Jareth was simply glad his threats had gone through Hoggle's cowardly little head. But... Sam had tried to kiss him. Hugged him. What could it mean? Was Hoggle actually a threat?

" _It's just a kiss"_ Jareth's train of thought was derailed at how casual Sam was, it was almost painful. The Goblin King paused, this wasn't a sensation he was used to. He didn't want to think of the emotion that had welled up behind his deep jealousy. As king he had always had everything he wanted, what was this? Jareth stood from his throne, ignoring the goblins that scattered from the way of his rapid pace, he stared out the window, out at his labyrinth. _Just a kiss_. Without thinking, he waved his hand, sending Hoggle and his precious Sam to the Bog of Eternal Stench. After, Jareth leaned against the window pane and tried to come to terms with the alien, hopeless, undeniable longing.

Meanwhile, Sam and Hoggle had just started to look for a way down the other side of the wall when the ground gave way beneath them and they were sent tumbling down a dark tunnel. Sam let out a scream as he traveled down through the darkness.

He landed with a thump on a narrow pathway, in the worst possible place he could imagine. Hoggle had not been exaggerating when he said the bog of eternal stench was horrible. Sam could almost taste the noxious fumes clawing at the back of his throat. He gagged as every repulsive odor fought for attention, in an oozing sludge of rotting fish, decaying flesh, sour milk, spoiled eggs, melting tar, and every gut wrenching smell to ever curse the planet.

Sam's first instinct was to hold his nose, but then it seemed like he was tasting the toxic tendrils of smell. Nothing seemed to help but he was unable to dwell on the smell as Hoggle was dangling above the bubbling swamp by a narrow slice of stone.

"What's that smell," Sam asked as he grabbed Hoggle and dragged him him onto the narrow pathway.

"It's the Bog of Eternal Stench," Hoggle wailed as he clung to the wall.

"It's disgusting," Sam whispered as he and Hoggle began to edge along. Sam wrinkled his nose as the smell seemed to get worse by the second. It now smelled like a middle boys' locker room, a dog's puke after it had eaten its poop, and a dressing room after a dance recital. It also smelled slightly like old blood.

"Well you really got his attention," Hoggle mumbled. That peaked Sam's attention.

"Whose attention?" Sam asked and then screamed as the rocks nearly gave way beneath them. Somehow they managed to crawl across the opening to a now safe part of the ledge.

"Jareth's! Why did you have to go and say that? 'It's just a kiss!'" Hoggle mocked.

"Kisses aren't that important. It's a sign of love or friendship!" Sam halfheartedly defended himself. He was mainly focused on the fact that Jareth had reacted after he had nearly kissed Hoggle. Why did the King care? Unless… he cared about what Sam was doing?

The idea sent a thrill through Sam but he immediately began to try to calm himself down. He shouldn't get ahead of himself but why else would Jareth do such a thing? Hoggle was speaking, but Sam found himself not paying attention. He was too busy trying to control his heartbeat, which seemed to be twice as fast as it should be.

"...And to give you,"

"Hm?" Sam finally started listening, right when Hoggle was interrupted by a familiar roar. The roar seemed to shake the rocks that they were but Sam managed to maintain his balance despite the rumbling beneath his feet.

"Smell!" He turned in the direction that Ludo's rumbling voice had come from, and when he looked in the direction of Hoggle, the dwarf had disappeared. Sam rolled his eyes as he called, experimentally,

"Hoggle?" Ludo approached him, and Sam gestured for the beast to follow him toward the somewhat muffled shouting.

"Get off me!" Sam saw Hoggle trying to shake off what looked like a squirrel-fox hybrid, it was snarling something about not being allowed to cross the bridge, but then Hoggle flew backward and the thing, whatever it was, disappeared.

"Come on, Ludo," Sam said as he approached Hoggle and helped him up. Hoggle was mumbling something under his breath but he stopped when he saw Ludo standing behind Sam.

Hoggle let out a yell and stumbled backwards. "Sam!" Hoggle stuttered and before he could say anything else, Sam cut him off.

"This is Ludo. He's a friend of mine. Ludo, this is Hoggle," Sam introduced. Hoggle continued to stare at Ludo in horror but slowly nodded.

"Smell," Ludo whined again.

"You're right. Let's get out of here," Sam said.

"Well there's a bridge," Hoggle said and pointed toward it.

The group slowly approached the bridge which was just a plank of wood covering a large span of swamp water. There wasn't really a rail although there were a few branches that seemed to be attempting to replicate such a thing and it seemed a little dangerous to cross.

"Hey Hoggle, what would happen if we fell into the bog?" Sam asked as they stood before the bridge.

"You step in this stuff and you'll stink forever," Hoggle replied, staring in horror at the bubbling bog.

"Well that's just great," Sam muttered. "Well, I guess we should get going." He walked forever and was about to climb onto the bridge when a voice called out.

"Stop! Stop, I say!" the voice called and a small fox appeared. Sam stared at it in curiosity. It was dressed in a fancy suit with a feathered hat. He was carrying some sort of staff and he looked a little like a noble man. Had this been the creature that Hoggle had been fighting just a few minutes earlier?

Hoggle glared at the fox. "Yous need to let us cross."

"No one shall cross the bridge without my permission!" the fox declared. He brandished his small rapier and bared his teeth. Sam opened his mouth, then closed it again, thinking. Unfortunately, Ludo growled

"Smell!" And swung his his arms in the general direction of the fox,

"Smell? Of what speaketh thou?" He drew in a long breath through his nose, Sam almost stood open mouthed in amazement, "The air is sweet, and fragrant." _What? He must've adapted?_ This made some semblance of sense. Some semblance but he didn't understand how you could adapt to the changing smell. Was it a cycle?

"The smell," Sam said, gesturing around at the bog.

"I smell nothing," the fox said and drew himself up. "I live by my sense of smell."

Sam nodded slowly and began to edge forward, trying to get onto the bridge but was stopped by the fox once again. "None may pass without my permission!"

A sudden thought hit Sam and he smiled. Well, if all they needed to pass was this fox's permission then surely all they had to do was ask for it, right? Before Sam could do so however, Hoggle shoved past the fox and ran onto the bridge. Sam gasped as the dwarf ran toward the narrow piece of wood that bound the two sides of the bog. It didn't look safe and the thought of the smell forever being attached to someone was honestly horrifying.

The fox whirled around as Hoggle reached the edge of the bridge and slowly began to cross. "Hold! I don't want to hurt you!" the small creature shouted and turned to follow the dwarf but Ludo stepped forward and swiped at the fox, grabbing the staff that the fox waved in the air.

"Hoggle, what are you doing?" Sam shouted as the dwarf was nearly halfway across the wooden plank already and didn't seem to care that his two friends were left to deal with the fox by themselves. It also hadn't occurred to anyone else yet that even if they did manage to get past the gatekeeper, or bridgekeeper, that Ludo probably wouldn't be able to cross. The bridge was too thin and looked too unstable for the large yeti to cross safely without falling into the bog. The bridge shook when Hoggle ran across it and he was by far the lightest of them all. The thin railings that surrounded the bridge weren't going to be much use if the bridge fell. Honestly, was anyone thinking when they had created this place?

For the moment, Sam seemed to be the only one who was thinking at all. Ludo had stolen the fox's staff, and it was snarling as it yanked its weapon free, the flamboyant yellow feather that adorned its hat shaking as it freed the staff. It whacked Ludo's knee, and when Ludo bent to attack him, the fox scurried onto his back,

"I can conquer this mountain!" Ludo reeled as the fox started hitting him on the head, Sam started forward, thinking he could help, but then he paused. Even if Ludo did win, they still had the problem of crossing the tiny bridge.

Ludo growled. He was blinking rapidly as the fox continued to hit the poor beast over the head and suddenly swung his head forward, causing his attacker to grab ahold of two long locks of hair. The fox swung forward onto Ludo's face and hung there for a few seconds.

Ludo moved his hand close, probably to grab the fox and remove him but his attacker wasn't finished and bit the yeti's finger as it moved closer. Ludo cried out in pain and Sam moved forward to help, unable to stand being such a kind creature in pain, especially over a misunderstanding.

Fortunately, it seemed Ludo had the situation under control and pulled the fox away, though it still clung onto the finger. With a mighty swing, Ludo threw the fox into some grass, a good ten feet away from them. Sam rushed forward to check on Ludo as the yeti brought his hand up to his face to see if he was bleeding. Sam had barely taken two steps before the fox reappeared.

Sam thought that might be the end of it but the fox let out a battle cry and began to whack Ludo's leg again. The yeti stared down at the fox for a few seconds before looking around, apparently trying to find something. Once again, Sam stood back, reminding himself that Ludo would be fine and that the fox surely couldn't do any major damage to the kind but large creature.

Ludo found what he was looking for and picked up a large, broken tree branch from the ground. He began to swing, trying to clobber the fox into the ground. However, the smaller creature had the advantage of speed and continued to dodge each of Ludo's swings. The fox did seem to be enjoying himself, now laughing and taunting Ludo. "Haha! Thou must do better than that!"

The two continued to try to fight for another few moments. Soon the fox retreated into a small tunnel in a tree and Ludo smashed the opening. Sam was actually worried for a few seconds that Ludo may have hurt his attacker but a few seconds later, the fox's head was popping out of a hole in the tree truck with a kind smile on his face.

"Enough!" the bridgekeeper declared. "Never have I met my match in battle, yet this noble knight has fought me to a standstill."

Sam took this chance to approach his friend and finally check on him. "Are you alright, Ludo?" he asked, grabbing the yeti's hand to examine for any damage. To his relief, it seemed that the fox's teeth hadn't broken any skin and his hand was fine.

"Smell," Ludo replied and Sam nodded. He was glad that his friend was alright despite their present circumstances.

"I, Sir Didymus, yield to thee," the bridgekeeper continued, almost indifferent to the brief interruption. "Come! Let us be brothers henceforth, and fight for the right as one!" Now that the newly introduced Sir Didymus was no longer attacking his friend, Sam thought him rather amusing, and actually good at heart. They had, after all, only quarreled due to his "sacred vow."

Ludo carefully pulled Sir Didymus out from the tree in which he sat in. Once the fox was safely back on the ground, the knight thanked the yeti with a foxy grin.

"Ludo get brother!" the yeti rumbled, also smiling.

"Well met, Sir Ludo," Sir Didymus replied. Sam smiled at the two, glad that they were getting along so well. Then another thought struck Sam.

"Sir Didymus," Sam said and the fox turned to face him.

"Yes, dear boy?" the fox asked.

"Would you be willing to teach me how to fence?"


	5. Chapter 5

As it turned out, what Sir Didymus lacked in height, he made up for in valor and speed. But, if Sam was honest with himself, he doubted he would be able to defeat Jareth, even if he did get a fair amount of skill in the few short hours spent with Sir Didymus. He could honestly say he had little confidence in the meager plan he had set up for himself, but Sam steeled himself and turned to Sir Dittimus, having figured out a loophole in the fox's sacred vow,

"May we have your permission to cross the bridge?" Sir Didymus looked surprised at the question; Sam doubted anyone had ever thought to ask before.

"Well… um…" the knight looked so unsure about how to act. "Yes?" he finally said. Sam grinned.

"Thank you!" he exclaimed, wanting to pick up the small and twirl him around although he doubted that he would enjoy such a thing. Sam was yet another step closer to being able to defeat Jareth. Well, hopefully being able to beat Jareth.

"Finally!" Hoggle huffed, standing up from the rock he was sitting on. Hoggle had been impatiently watching the entire sparring event. Well, not all of it. He had run off quick a ways before actually realizing that Sam and Ludo weren't with him and coming back. Sir Didymus gave him a stern talking to and nearly went into another duel with Hoggle and his honor had been offended. Sam had been able to stop it from going too far before Hoggle didn't really seem to like the fox too much.

Ludo gave Sam and Sir Didymus a large grin as he stood. The yeti had quietly been entertaining himself while Sam and the knight had been fighting with a bunch of rocks. Ludo truly reminded Sam of a small child and the brown beast was slowly teaching Sam that he should enjoy the time spent with her sister. As soon as he got Tabatha back, he was going to be the best brother there ever was.

The thought trailed off as Sam turned back to the bridge, his brow furrowed as he stared at the rickety bridge over the wide bog that still reeked like nothing he'd ever experienced. He cast a questioning look at Sir Didymus, who waved an airy hand,

"Fear not, Dear Sir, this Bridge has lasted for 1000 years!"

Sam cast the bridge a doubting glare. Just because something had lasted for a 1,000 years, that didn't mean that it was going to last for one more, much least another thousand. Still, appearances had been deceiving the entire time Sam had been journeying through the Labyrinth so perhaps this would be another time where the bridge was indeed sturdier than it appeared.

Sam took a deep breath and stepped onto the bridge, after sorely regretting the prior action, if anything, it had aggravated his nerves when the stench clung to the back of his throat. Another step, it shook under his weight. Sam winced, it had definitely been a mistake to even try to cross the bridge. It moaned under him, and the sound of cracking made the blood leave Sam's face. Out of pure reflex, he jumped and miraculously caught a branch as the ancient thing gave way under his weight.

Clinging to the branch with all his strength, he cried out. "Hoggle! Jareth!"

The knight who was standing back on solid ground definitely wasn't going to be much help as he was just staring at the space where the bridge used to stand. Sir Didymus didn't move but said, "It seemed solid enough."

Hoggle and Ludo were standing next to the knight, staring at Sam. The boy wasn't sure how long he could hold onto the branch but it wasn't going to be long enough if his friends didn't act soon or if Jareth didn't come to his rescue again.

He was almost surprised when the king didn't appear, but he heard a howl from Ludo. He almost lost his grip in surprise when a huge grey stone bubbled from the bog, drying itself as it rose from the noxious green pool. Sam allowed himself to fall lightly onto the stone, before gravity did the work for him.

"That's amazing Ludo!" Sam said, staring at the stone below him, still not fully believing what had just happened. It also sort of explained why Ludo had been playing with the rocks while Sir Didymus had taught Sam how to fence. He liked he rocks and they liked him back.

"Canst thou summon up the very rocks?" Sir Didymus asked.

Ludo gave a large grin and nodded. "Sure. Rocks friends." Sam nodded slowly.

"Hey Ludo, would you please summon up another few rocks?" Sam asked and the yeti nodded. He yowled again and a large rock rolled down a hill and into the bog. It sailed through the murk and in front of Sam while another two popped up in front of that one. When Sam turned around, he saw that another three rocks had also popped up behind him, creating a safer bridge across the gap.

A grin on his face, Sam leapt from rock to rock until he had reached the other side. Hoggle was already halfway across when Sam turned around once again to check on his friends and Ludo was beginning to journey. Although the rocks were a bit of a jump for the others, they were the perfect spacing for Ludo who didn't need to reach very far.

Sir Didymus was still waiting on the other side and appeared to be calling for someone or something. Who that was soon became clear as a sheep dog came running toward the fox. Sam realized that Sir Didymus's home must be close to the bridge as he and the dog had appeared from the same area. The knight climbed on top of the dog and set across the bog to join Sam and others.

" _Ambrosius, my loyal steed!"_ Jareth frowned as Sam smiled at the small fluffy dog. Even he had to admit it was cute, as most non-talking animals were. That didn't make Jareth regret his decision to send Sam to the bog. Admittedly, he was not going to express any form of regret, ever. Unless the situation truly merited it. Still, he could have been more _tactful_ when it came to the treatment of Sam. Jareth took his eyes off the orb to think. He wasn't one to wish for tact, he rarely needed it.

Still, perhaps his decision had been a bit too rash and his actions too quick. Hoggle really wasn't competition for Sam's heart and the boy definitely wasn't going to kiss the dwarf. Yet a flare of jealousy still burned his heart whenever he thought about the fact that Sam had been about to kiss Hoggle. Why hadn't he stuck around so he could be the one to earn Sam's affection? He had been the one to truly save Sam's life while all Hoggle had done was dangle a rope from the wall! Jareth crossed his arms and scowled, trying to figure this out; he wasn't entirely sure what to do with his, well, feelings. The word was unfamiliar in his mind. He whispered it, knowing the goblins wouldn't notice him tasting the almost alien word. He wasn't entirely sure that his actions were _correct_ by his part. This was new, something that he couldn't control in his kingdom, and he found it oddly exciting, while simultaneously driving him mad.

 _I wonder, if my peach will be the right thing to do? Or was it,_ Jareth could barely consider the option in a land where he controlled all, _wrong?_

No! There was no way that his spell would be wrong. It should be a dream come true! Well, at least Jareth thought so. He was going to show Sam that he truly was a prince and they were going to dance the night away. Surely that's what every human wanted, right? It wasn't just the girls that Jareth was so used to running his labyrinth.

He bit his lip, still considering his actions. This time the spell was different. He was trying to make Sam run out of time like he had with previous runners but this time he was going to try to win someone's heart. Everyone he had tried this spell upon had enjoyed it and several had fallen in love with him but how would Sam react if Jareth didn't release the spell in time so Sam would still have a chance to win his sister back? What if Jareth wasted too much time enjoying the spell and messed up this chance?

No! This was insane! He was the king of this realm and had claimed many hearts. He could woo Sam while still giving him a fair chance, that would only lead to success. Right?

Jareth sighed and began to pace around his throne. The goblins still paid him no mind as they were busy playing with Tabatha. Never in his life had he been so unsure of how to act. How different was winning a man's heart from a woman's? Surely the desires were similar...

Sam was standing at the top of the hill that rose behind the Bog of Eternal Stench, purging his lungs of the smells he had just escaped. It allowed him to focus on the other problems at hand. Rescuing Tabatha, defeating Jareth, his stomach rumbling. Oh, apparently he was hungry too. Behind him, both Sir Didymus and Ludo were complaining about the same problem, and Sam found himself nodding in agreement; when had he last eaten anything?

"Is that my stomach or yours, Ambrosius?" Sir Didymus asked as the group walked through a dark forest. Sam scanned the area surrounding them, thinking there must be some sort of food located deep in the trees.

"Hungry!" Ludo growled.

"Yeah," Sam whispered, still looking for some sort of food, "but we can't stop now. Maybe we can find some berries?"

How in the world was it possible that there was nothing food like in this forest? Where did the citizens of this realm get their food anyway? Sam hadn't exactly seen any sort of food since he had entered this place.

"Uh, Sam?" The boy looked down at Hoggle, who had interrupted his trying to recall seeing anything edible in this entire kingdom,

"Yeah?" Hoggle presented Sam with a perfect little peach,

"Here." He seemed to be worried about something, but Sam couldn't think of why Hoggle would be, maybe he was still terrified of Jareth. Even as he wondered at what power the king might possess to make Hoggle so terrified, his face split into a grin as he too the peach,

"Hoggle! You're a life-saver!" He took a bite of the fruit, and was not greeted by the flavor of peach. Sure it was sweet, but it definitely wasn't peach. Sam's eyes widened and he looked at Hoggle, unsure of his expression, because he couldn't place his feelings in that moment,

"Hoggle, what have you done?" Sam barely heard Hoggle growl,

"Damn you, Jareth. And Damn me too." Before the world dissolved around him.

Sir Didymus missed this entire exchange, as he was looking out over the horizon at the splendid castle in the distance,

"The castle doth lie yonder, good Sir." He looked around when there was no answer, "Good Sir?"

Sam only heard laughter as a scene blossomed around him, colorfully dressed dancers waltzing around him, giggling behind their almost grotesque masks. Sam took a tentative step forward, jumping in surprise as he noticed his shoes had changed from comfortable converse to gleaming white dress shoes. He shivered slightly and stepped closer to one of the white walls, the mirror adorning it haloed in crystal lamps and delicate silver. At the sight of his reflection, Sam did a double-take.

His hair was done up in a silky quiff that he couldn't have dreamed of attempting. On the left side of his dark hair, individual diamonds glittered in an intricate path to the side of his face, where they shrank into nonexistence. The high collar of his pure white tailcoat brushed the side of his neck, which was also slightly sparkly. Sam's eyes followed the silver lined hem of the jacket, the crisp white shirt under it had a neckline that swooped down like an owl descending on its prey, it was also lined in soft silver, and sheer white fabric that glittered in the light climbed back up to just below his collarbone in delicate dancing patterns. The long back of the tailcoat faded to a whisper of sheer cloth. And naturally, because the ensemble was so elegant, Sam's pants could rival Jareth's. He blushed furiously, causing the tiny flecks of glitter to stand out with more bravado. _Damn it, Jareth_. Sam looked up in the mirror at the winding white marble staircase and his breath stopped in his chest.

Standing on the top of the perfectly sculpted white stairs was the gorgeous king himself, striking in a dark blue suit that glittered with all the ability it had, a splash of silver hemmed white on his elegant ruffled collar. Sam spun on his heel to see if he wasn't a trick of the light. No, Jareth was standing there in all his majesty, a slight, uncharacteristically warm, smile raised the corners of his lips.

Sam was only aware of two things as he passed through the masked dancers: One, he was the only one in white. Two, Jareth was descending the stairs as if to meet him.

The two met in the middle, and the music changed to accommodate the dance they just started. Jareth was leading, Sam mimicked his graceful movements and the two spun through the colorful crowd, dark blue and white glitter falling behind them, throwing tiny rainbows into the air as they sparkled, drifting to the ground behind the completely oblivious Sam and Jareth. To be fair, neither of them were even aware of the music they were supposedly dancing to.

Jareth was finding the feeling delightful, despite the confusion it brought, of staring into Sam's clear hazel eyes. The only reason Sam wasn't falling into Jareth was the king's graceful dancing, and himself actually being able to keep up, despite drowning in his mismatched gaze. Together they waltzed across the floor, until they had made it all the way back to the staircase Jareth had been waiting for Sam on. Sam almost spun to start another time around,letting Jareth turn him by his right hand which was raised above both of their heads. Just as Sam was about to step out from the turn, Jareth's hand was on his back stopping Sam from continuing the motion. Not letting go of his hand, Jareth tipped Sam back into the arm that had stopped his motion, bringing their intertwined fingers to Sam's other side. He blushed again, which, surprisingly, made Jareth smile as he scooped Sam up bridal style and twirled as he ascended the stairs. Sam tipped his head back and let the music wash over him, he was pleasantly surprised to hear that it was Jareth crooning,

" _There's sad love, deep in your eyes_ " Jareth curled him closer and sang in his ear his voice delicately playing over the lyrics, " _A kind of pale jewel Open and closed within your eyes, I'll put the sky within your eyes. There's such a fooled heart, beating so fast in search of new dreams. A love that will last within your heart."_

Sam leaned his head against Jareth's chest, a soft smile on face. This was nice. He didn't know that the king had this soft side to him and honestly he liked it. It was nice to know that Jareth was more than a pretty face and tight pants.

Closing his eyes, he continued to listen to Jareth's song. " _I'll place the moon within your heart. As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you, every thrill has gone. It wasn't too much love at all. But I'll be there for you, as the world falls down! It's falling, it's falling down, falling in love."_

Jareth gently set Sam down on the second step from the top and walked down two steps until they were eye level. Sam was still drunk on the song, his eyes never leaving Jareth's mismatched gaze. He leaned forward, not wanting to be parted from him and Jareth met his halfway, their foreheads now touching. Jareth continued his song, their eyes never leaving each others.

" _I'll paint you mornings of gold. I'll spin you Valentine's evenings. Though we're strangers till now, we're choosing a path between the stars. I'll lay my love between the stars. As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you, every thrill is gone. Wasn't too much fun at all."_ Sam wanted Jareth to just shut up and kiss him already. There was barely any space between their lips and it would take barely any effort to close the gap yet he didn't want to interrupt the song.

" _But I'll be there for you as the world falls down. It's falling as the world falls down. It's falling. It's falling. It's falling. It's falling. Falling in love, it's falling."_

Finally, the song was over. Sam leaned forward to press his lips against Jareth's but the striking of a clock caused the king to pull away and look around. The smile that had been on his face disappeared and he turned back to Sam with a sad gaze in his eyes. Before Sam could ask what was going on, Jareth had turned away and was walking back the stairs. Sam blinked, wondering what had just happened but suddenly everything started to fade and shimmer. All he saw was Jareth looking back with some unplaceable expression, one that made Sam want to know what was wrong.

Sam started toward Jareth, wanting to reach him and understand what was wrong but the world around him was becoming blurry and it was hard for him to move. Jareth was nearly out of his reach and was disappearing into the crowd of dancers who all stared at Sam with grins on their faces. He had barely made it halfway around the staircase when the world dissolved completely around him and he found himself floating down and landing on a huge pile of junk.

Looking around, Sam wandered how he had gotten here. He should still be in the forest yet he could see one in the distance. Were his friends still in there, searching for him? Why had he been teleported into this junkyard, especially since it was so close to the castle? Surely Jareth hadn't let that happen, right?

"Ow, get off my back!" A voice suddenly growled at Sam. The boy leapt up off the junk pile and onto the dirt. He whirled around and saw a small figure appear from under the junk he had just been lying on. An old hag glared up at him. She was hunched over with an enormous pile of junk balanced on her back. Sam couldn't help but wonder how she was able to handle all that weight on her back but he definitely didn't blame her annoyance at landing on her. She continued grumbling at Sam, who felt as though his head been filled with shimmering white mist. He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, all he really understood at the moment was the withered old lady with the heaping mounds of junk on her back was demanding why he didn't look where he was going.

"Umm." Sam found it hard to find the words he was looking for, "I, I was looking..." He trailed off, the woman looked just as confused as he felt. He couldn't shake the idea that he had been searching for something, something important. The woman asked, her weathered voice seemed softer than before,

"Where, where were you going?" Sam shook his head and shrugged, trying to clear his head of the mist that was muddling his every memory, and concealing what he was trying to accomplish,

"I don't remember." She shook her head, wiry grey hair shaking as she added,

"You can't look where you're going if you don't know where you're going." Sam tilted his head to one side, straining to remember, music filled his thoughts and shrouded it from his mind,

"I... I was looking for something..." Was he? Sam thought so. The crone pondered this for a moment, then grabbed his hand and led him to a hollow in the mounds of junk,

"Why don't you try looking here?" Sam let her lead him into the room. His bedroom. What? His bedroom? Where was he? Every question he had thickened the mist, so he sat on the edge of his bed and tried to sort through the thoughts, the haze and the new questions, while the hag hobbled around his room, precarious pile of trash waving as she moved. She plucked a notebook off a shelf, and handed it Sam, who carefully took it, and gently touched the pages,

"Thank you." He wasn't sure this was what he was looking for, but Sam found comfort in its familiarity. It seemed to clear the haze, if only a little bit.

The woman continued to shuffle around his room handing him various objects and naming them in her scratchy voice and how important they were, blankets, slippers, old stuffed animals, books, more notebooks, but Sam was only half paying attention, he was slowly turning the pages of his notebook. He paused at the last entry. In his sloppy handwriting was a name he recognized. Gareth. He repeated it in his mind, mulling it over, it rang a bell. Gareth, Dareth? No, Jareth. _Jareth_. A thought cut through the shimmering mists and lyrics in his mind, the goblin king and his mismatched eyes, a dance, Tabitha.

"Oh, and here's your little bear! Isn't he so cute!" the hag said, placing the bear on the pile of junk that now sat on his lap.

"All this stuff is worthless," Sam murmured, standing up and causing all the stuff to fall onto the ground. Why was this woman trying to fill his life with these things when he needed to go rescue his sister and get revenge on a certain king for messing with his emotions. He also believed that Jareth still owed him a dance.

"What?" the hag yelped, looking insulted.

"It's all worthless!" Sam declared again and immediately whirled around and marched out of the door. He could hear the hag hurrying after him, spluttering about how none of things she had given him were worthless and were, in fact, priceless possessions that he should appreciate. Sam ignored her as he climbed onto one of the piles of junks and looked around, hoping to see his friends or something familiar.

Looking ahead, he saw the great wall that he had exited earlier in his journey, when he had first arrived in the castle. Excellent. He was close and soon he would rescue his sister.

Sam sprinted away toward the wall, scanning for the large wooden doors he knew where somewhere. As he ran he saw two familiar faces that caused him to grin.

"Ludo! Sir Didymus!" he called as he ran and the two figures turned around.

"Sam! It's lovely to see you dear boy, we've been looking everywhere for you!" Sir Didymus declared.

"Sorry guys, I was… a bit busy," Sam replied, feeling bad for having abandoned his friends. To be fair, it hadn't really been his fault, it had been Jareth's. That was another thing he needed to tell the king off for; how dare he threaten Hoggle like that and make Hoggle drug his friend. In all honesty, it made the king less attractive and it pissed Sam off. He huffed and turned to his friends,

"Where are we, anyway?" Sir Dittimus pointed toward the horizon,

"We are almost there, good sir! The gates of the goblin city!" Ludo growled his assent, indeed Sam saw the gates he had found in the beginning of this endeavor. He placed a hand on the borrowed sword at his hip and narrowed his eyes at the palace, he was going to have to teach Jareth to not mess with him like that, and get Tabitha back. Sam took a deep breath and started in the direction of the gates, his friends along side him, brushing a few stray flakes of glitter off his shoulder. It only ended up on his hand. He glared at the horizon, way to ruin the effect.

It honestly didn't take long for the group to make it to the huge doors with the utterly pointless chains on the front. Sam stared at the chains for a moment before pushing the doors open and revealing the large stone arch that lead into the Goblin City.

Wooden carts and white stone houses greeted the trio as they stepped into the city. Sam heard Ludo shuffle behind him and turned around to give him a calming glance. The gentle creature held out a hand for Sam for to and Sam led him forward into the city.

As they were about to enter, two metal halves swung forward, forming a gate to prevent them from entering. However, that wasn't even the worst part. A mold of a humongous robot formed the door and an uneasy feeling settled over Sam. Was this how the goblins defended themselves?

The mold came together and Sam revealed that it wasn't actually a mold at all once the arms of the robot began to move. Red eyes blinked to life and it growled at the trio. A wave of fear swept through Sam and his hand went to his sword. Unfortunately, he doubted that his small but sharp piece of metal would do much damage.

Ambrosius began to bark as the robot let out another growl. The robot glided out from the metal wall that had trapped it and stamped forward. They all began to back up as the robot stepped forward and Sam realized just how tall the creature was, probably 12 feet tall.

The group continued to back away until Sam suddenly heard a twang of metal. He turned around to see metal spikes had popped out of the ground and narrowed his eyes. Where had those some from and what was even the point of them? The ends didn't look sharp but… the sides of the metal might be an issue. Even if Sam could get over them, it was unlikely that both his friends could.

The golem swung its giant axe downwards, attempting to slash the trio but horribly missing. Sam narrowed his eyes at the mechanical giant, trying to figure out a way to disable it, something. It was huge, but very clearly not fast, nor precise in its attacks. He looked around, thinking as Sir Dittimus tried to coax Ambrosius from his hiding place. Perhaps 'coax' was the wrong word, Sir Dittimus was shouting at his dog about his cowardice, and to stand and fight, his yelps at his steed a stark contrast to Ludo's resonant and uncertain growls that slowly ran thick claws through the air as he stared at the massive gatekeeper.

It swung its axe again and again missed the trio, Sam threw his head up to see where the mechanical thing would attack next, but something else caught his eye,

"Hoggle!"

The dwarf was running along the top of the wall that separated the group from the Goblin City. Sam turned back to the golem that had managed to get its weapon caught in the doorway and was stuck swinging it back and forth, repeatedly hitting the stone. The golem managed to get its weapon free by swinging downward but at that point it was already too late.

With a mighty yell, Hoggle jumped down and onto the golem. He grabbed onto on the horns that made up the golem's head and hung there for a few seconds. Fear struck Sam's heart as he watched his friend dangle there for a few moments before righting himself and pulling the golem's off, which fell to the dirt with a clang. Instead the robot was a small goblin, who looked shocked at seeing Hoggle on the golem's shoulder.

"Eh, get out of there!" Hoggle declared as he jumped into the robot and shoved the goblin out of the way. The goblin fell out of the robot with a scream and landed on its face at Sam's feet. Before Sam could help the small creature, it had already darted away.

"My turn now!" Hoggle said as he steeled into the seat. Gripping the two levers in front of him, he began to move them up and down. "Eh, how do you drive this thing?" The levers moved the arms around randomly, causing the axe to nearly hit Sam and Ludo several times.

"Be careful!" Sam shouted up to Hoggle.

"I'm trying!" the dwarf shouted back. "Where's reverse?"

Sam was about to shout that this was a robot not a car when the machine started to spark due to something that Hoggle had touched. Realizing that the robot was probably about to blow up, Sam called for Hoggle to quickly get out of there before he got hurt.

Scared, Hoggle managed to get the axe stuck in the stone archway before he jumped out the machine which was being to smoke. Hoggle also landed on his face as the machine shot out large, blue sparks the froze.

"Hoggle, are you alright?" Sam asked, crouching down next to his friend.

"I'm not asking to be forgiven. I ain't ashamed of myself. Jareth made me give you that peach. I don't care what you think. I told you I was a coward. I ain't interested in being friends," Hoggle declared as he sat up.

Sam rolled his eyes at Hoggle. "I forgive you Hoggle."

Hoggle looked up, surprised. "You-you do?"

"And I commend you!" Sir Didymus said. "Rarely have I seen such courage. You are valiant, Sir Hoggle!" Sam smiled at Sir Didymus; the knight could be crazy at times but he had a good heart.

"Huh- I am?" Hoggle asked.

"Hoggle and Ludo are friends," Ludo added.

"We are?" Hoggle asked. Sam couldn't help but wonder if every creature in the labyrinth was lacking in social skills. Jareth didn't know how to properly ask someone out, Ludo was bullied and had growled at someone trying to protect him, Sir Didymus was ready to fight anyone and everyone and apparently couldn't smell, and Hoggle didn't understand kindness. Well that worm had been nice. He should really go and pay him a nice visit. Actually, he probably should have gone and had a nice cup of tea and asked the worm how to defeat Jareth. That may have been a better plan than just wandering around but at least Sam had made several new friends out of the experience.

Sam snapped out his thoughts, remembering something important. He unhooked Hoggle's jewels from his waist and handed them back with a smile. "Thanks for all your help, Hoggle and I'm sorry about taking your jewels."

Hoggle took the bag back with a grin and looked up at Sam. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get that rat who calls himself Jareth!"

"Right!" Sam agreed standing up.

Sir Didymus had returned to trying to get Ambrosius to come out. "It's safe now Ambrosius! There's nothing to be afraid of."

The dog slowly came out of his hiding place and allowed Sir Didymus to climb back onto his back.

Sam pushed the metal doors open to reveal the bleak landscape of the Goblin City. Sam felt a wave of pity for the creatures that had to live here but pushed those feelings aside for the moment. He had a little sister to save.

The tan buildings were scattered across an uneven street, and the windows didn't have any glass in them. Doors the color of mud stood ajar, and an unsightly yellowish fountain trickled atop crooked cobblestone, and a cat mewled in the distance. Aside from that, there was no sound, and the silence was unsettling. Sam and his friends crept into the city, stillness only broken by slight movement from the fountain, and a blur of motion in the far corner of the street, too far and fleeting to be identified.

The goblin that had run away arrived, breathless at Jareth's throne room,

"Your Highness!" It wheezed, tripping over its words as it tried to finish a coherent thought, "Your Highness! The-The boy! That boy who ate the peach and forgot everything!"Jareth sat up in his stone throne, moved from his daydreams at the mention of Sam,

"What of him?" The goblin answered in its squeaky voice,

"He, the monster, Sir Didymus, and the dwarf are on their way to the castle!" Jareth had two reactions simultaneously, the first one he said out loud, good thing too, as it was the most in character,

"Stop him. Send the guards, hide his sister. Do, something!" He didn't want to see Sam, he wasn't sure if he had acted appropriately given his situation, and although this quality was oddly endearing, Sam's taking his words with a grain of salt could be infuriating. Especially since he wasn't as easy to read as his goblins. Indeed, it would be much simpler if he had just stayed in the junkyard. But, on the other hand that wouldn't have been fair. That led to the other reaction, a little secret happiness that he might be able to set the record straight. After all, what did he really do wrong? It's not like he threw a snake at him... Jareth grimaced, nevermind, he did do that. He had to resist the urge to flop onto his throne and try to puzzle out human emotions, and how to deal with his own. He glared around the room, it was empty. It looked like he was the only one tardy, Jareth frowned slightly as he allowed himself to fade away to his own tasks.

Meanwhile, Sam was in a fairly good mood. The goblins must all be the castle so that meant that the group had an easy journey in order to get to the castle. Well, perhaps it wasn't the best since they would probably have to find a way to get through the goblins and they would be in an enclosed space.

Sam didn't want to jinx them yet but he honestly still thought that the journey was going to be easy. And the universe just had to prove him wrong.

Suddenly around the corner, the pounding footsteps could be heard. Sam whirled around to see several goblin soldiers marching forward with a cannon.

"Company, halt! Lancers, ready!" one of the goblins commanded. "Cannon, fire!"

Smoke burst from the cannon as it shot and Sam didn't see where the shot landed as the shouts of charge and rushing goblins grabbed his attention. Within moments, the group was surrounded and Sam was searching for a way out of the situation. Fortunately, there was a small gap behind them.

"Come on!" Sam shouted as he ran through it. He caught a glimpse of his friends horrified faces as they ran away from the goblin army. He honestly wasn't so worried since the goblins appeared to be fumbling around, trying to organize themselves. Either the goblins weren't a strong army or they actually didn't wish to harm anyone.

Sam shook the thought away as he located a small opening between two of the houses that was covered by a plank of wood. He skidded to a halt and motioned for his friends to duck through the opening while he held the plank away.

Sir Didymus whirled around as Ludo and Hoggle crawled into the hole. He gave a battle cry and tried to rush forward to fight the goblin soldiers who were about to follow the group. However, Ambrosius was not in the mood for a battle and immediately turned tail and ran the other way.

"No, not that way! You're going the wrong way! The battle's behind us!" Sam heard Sir Didymus cry as Ambrosius ran away. Knowing that the furry stead would keep the knight, Sam quickly followed Hoggle and Ludo through the hole.

Running down the streets, Sam, Ludo and Hoggle managed to avoided all the soldiers. They nearly ran into some chasing Sir Didymus but Sam managed to stop them in time and despite two groups passing right by them, neither noticed the trio crouched in the shadows of two buildings. Sam waited until the soldiers were gone before motioning Hoggle and Ludo forward, following the soldiers from behind. The strategy worked surprisingly well since no one ever turned around and Sam, Ludo, and Hoggle were able to creep around the streets without too much of an issue.

Sam lead his friends into back into the center of town with the peeing foundation. Unfortunately, there was a group of goblins waiting for them with a small cannon. Sam's eyes widened as the cannon fired but missed as they ducked. He was even more horrified when he heard a small voice from inside the cannon ball squeak, asking what he had hit. He supposed that knowing someone was inside the cannon ball was a little better than having to wonder why someone had made the ammunition with arms and legs but not by much.

Whirling around again, Sam set off down another side street, hoping that it would actually lead him to where he wished he go. Running through several streets, Sam rounded a corner only to have a cannon blast greet him. Falling to the side to avoid the blow, he crashed onto the step of a house. Quickly getting back up, he motioned for Ludo and Hoggle to followed.

"Come on, in here." Sam called as he entered the house.

Hoggle easily followed but also pointed out a problem, "How's Ludo gonna get in here?"

Sam didn't actually have an answer but Ludo apparently did. He tore off the front part of the house as if he was opening a door and slipped inside the house. However, the house was already being surrounded by goblin soldiers and it was only due to the fact that Ludo had hit several of them with the wall that they didn't immediately break into the house.

Ludo climbed into the top part of the house and removed the roof of the tower. Seeing his friend up there gave Sam a sudden idea.

"Ludo! Call the rocks!" he called. Ludo gave Sam a strange look but did as he was asked. The yeti's yowls echoed through the city as Sam and Hoggle batted the goblins away from the windows inside the house. Soon enough, a loud rumbling shook the ground and Sam smiled, knowing that it was the rocks.

The goblins immediately panicked once they realized that huge boulders were rolling towards them and fled. The rocks filled the entire city, chasing the goblins around and opening up a path straight to the castle.

"Come on!" Sam cried as he exited the house. Setting off again, the trio ran through the city, nearly getting hit by stray cannon fire once but somehow they managed to reach the steps of the castle.

"Sir Didymus!" Sam called and turned around to see the fox running toward them.

"Coming!" he called. Sam smiled as his friend climbed the steps to meet them at the top of the stairs. Turning around, he faced another set of doors similar to the ones he had seen over by the junkyard. Two large wooden doors faced them with large chains acting as decoration while also making it slightly more difficult to open the door.

Between Sam and Ludo they managed to get the doors open and were met by the an empty throne room.


End file.
